A review by markyon
The Clown Service by Guy Adams
3.0
The Clown Service is a book that holds its influences up high and upfront: it’s a spy novel with an X-Files type twist. As an espionage tale, it has a touch of British diplomatic bureaucracy, in the way that Len Deighton’s 1960’s novel The Ipcress File did, and a healthy helping of whimsy in much the same way as the 1960’s TV series The Avengers did.*
The plot is a meandering one, although understandably so. Most of the novel is set in the present, where Toby Greene, hapless British Intelligence Service agent, is reassigned onto a rather secret, out of the way government department – Section 37. “If the Security Service is the circus, then Section 37 is where we keep the clowns”, Toby’s ex-boss happily tells him.
In his new position, led by the enigmatic, and rather John Steed-like, August Shining, Toby finds himself dealing with all sorts of mundane issues – requisitioning a desk from government supplies, for example – as well as paranormal activities – remote viewing, UFO sightings, werewolves, ghosts and the like.
His first major case is however one that is much more personal to Shining, being as how it is connected to Shining’s own first major assignment in 1962/63. In the present day, Toby and Shining find that Great Britain is again under threat – this time by the return of a supposedly long dead Soviet agent and his zombie-like minions. The dead are returning – and they mean business.
This one is lots of fun, partly due to its riffing of many other inspirations. As well as the previously mentioned influences, I could even sense a touch of sources as varied as 1970’s style Doctor Who, Doomwatch and Chris Moore’s V for Vendetta. The tone generally is nicely balanced between light and dark, with some quite creepy elements combined with the endearingly silly. The tale flits between the present and the 1960’s, which gives a nice origin story and a sense of a history.
There are a few occasions where the situation is a little overegged, especially at the beginning, but this rather reflects the combination of wacky and mundane. Much tea is drunk. The dialogue is fairly brisk, with some quite startling assertions – one character declares, “I am the Barry Manilow of spies”, probably the first and last time I’ll ever read such an unusual juxtaposition of ideas. The snark was a little reminiscent of Harry Dresden in its style.
Readers who enjoyed Charles Stross’s Laundry Files or Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files may like this rather more quintessentially British alternative version of paranormal shenanigans, although it could be argued that The Clown Service also shares what are often mentioned as the Dresden Files’s weaknesses. It must be said that the characters are rather basically-outlined, with an emphasis in the book instead on pace and action. The exception to this is perhaps Toby, who is initially a rather bland and even sad person, but as the tale goes on we get to see a little more personality. However, this is not a book where the psycho-analysis is too deep, though there is some. Toby suffers from PTSD, which plays a part here in both affecting his work and actually helping it. It’s a nice 21st century touch.
There’s much of this that I think readers of Christopher Fowler’s Bryant and May detective stories or Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series will enjoy this as well. Like those stories, though the physical setting of London is important, it is not quite as central as it is in those other tales.
As the first in a series, The Clown Service pretty much does what I expected – it sets up a new situation, introduces what will no doubt be recurring characters and creates an environment for this plot, and no doubt other plots in other novels, can follow. It doesn’t quite hold together in places – the McGuffin is a tad over the top, and the solution to the big problem rather sudden, for example – but there are enough points of intrigue to suggest that this tale is part of a much bigger story and it is perhaps this that will keep me reading the series.
In short, this one caught me by surprise. Engaging enough to catch my attention, and then frenetic enough to keep it, I enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to. A good beach read.
*Please note: despite the similarity in title, this old TV series is nothing to do with the Marvel comic-book and film franchise.
The plot is a meandering one, although understandably so. Most of the novel is set in the present, where Toby Greene, hapless British Intelligence Service agent, is reassigned onto a rather secret, out of the way government department – Section 37. “If the Security Service is the circus, then Section 37 is where we keep the clowns”, Toby’s ex-boss happily tells him.
In his new position, led by the enigmatic, and rather John Steed-like, August Shining, Toby finds himself dealing with all sorts of mundane issues – requisitioning a desk from government supplies, for example – as well as paranormal activities – remote viewing, UFO sightings, werewolves, ghosts and the like.
His first major case is however one that is much more personal to Shining, being as how it is connected to Shining’s own first major assignment in 1962/63. In the present day, Toby and Shining find that Great Britain is again under threat – this time by the return of a supposedly long dead Soviet agent and his zombie-like minions. The dead are returning – and they mean business.
This one is lots of fun, partly due to its riffing of many other inspirations. As well as the previously mentioned influences, I could even sense a touch of sources as varied as 1970’s style Doctor Who, Doomwatch and Chris Moore’s V for Vendetta. The tone generally is nicely balanced between light and dark, with some quite creepy elements combined with the endearingly silly. The tale flits between the present and the 1960’s, which gives a nice origin story and a sense of a history.
There are a few occasions where the situation is a little overegged, especially at the beginning, but this rather reflects the combination of wacky and mundane. Much tea is drunk. The dialogue is fairly brisk, with some quite startling assertions – one character declares, “I am the Barry Manilow of spies”, probably the first and last time I’ll ever read such an unusual juxtaposition of ideas. The snark was a little reminiscent of Harry Dresden in its style.
Readers who enjoyed Charles Stross’s Laundry Files or Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files may like this rather more quintessentially British alternative version of paranormal shenanigans, although it could be argued that The Clown Service also shares what are often mentioned as the Dresden Files’s weaknesses. It must be said that the characters are rather basically-outlined, with an emphasis in the book instead on pace and action. The exception to this is perhaps Toby, who is initially a rather bland and even sad person, but as the tale goes on we get to see a little more personality. However, this is not a book where the psycho-analysis is too deep, though there is some. Toby suffers from PTSD, which plays a part here in both affecting his work and actually helping it. It’s a nice 21st century touch.
There’s much of this that I think readers of Christopher Fowler’s Bryant and May detective stories or Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series will enjoy this as well. Like those stories, though the physical setting of London is important, it is not quite as central as it is in those other tales.
As the first in a series, The Clown Service pretty much does what I expected – it sets up a new situation, introduces what will no doubt be recurring characters and creates an environment for this plot, and no doubt other plots in other novels, can follow. It doesn’t quite hold together in places – the McGuffin is a tad over the top, and the solution to the big problem rather sudden, for example – but there are enough points of intrigue to suggest that this tale is part of a much bigger story and it is perhaps this that will keep me reading the series.
In short, this one caught me by surprise. Engaging enough to catch my attention, and then frenetic enough to keep it, I enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to. A good beach read.
*Please note: despite the similarity in title, this old TV series is nothing to do with the Marvel comic-book and film franchise.