Slow Horses Author Breaks Silence: Are More Books Coming After Clown Town?
Nine books in, the series shows no sign of stopping—more installments are on the horizon.
Slow Horses just dropped back into our lives, and yes, the first episode of season 5 is already up on Apple TV+. If you have a soft spot for grumpy spies and office-grade humiliation, today is a good day.
Where we are in the story (and the books)
Season 5 adapts Mick Herron's fifth Slough House novel, 'London Rules'. That tracks. The show has also quietly locked in seasons 6 and 7, and here's the inside-baseball wrinkle: those two seasons will pull from the sixth, seventh and eighth books. Two seasons, three books. Not impossible, just an interesting choice if you care about how closely these things map.
- Season 5: adapts book 5 ('London Rules'), first episode streaming now; official premiere date is today, 24 September 2025, on Apple TV+
- Seasons 6 and 7: commissioned, drawing from books 6, 7 and 8
- What remains after that: one more main-series novel to adapt, 'Clown Town', which just came out earlier this month
Good news for the long game
If you were worried that 'Clown Town' might be the end of the line, Herron says don't panic. Speaking at a special Radio Times screening for season 5 at the BFI, he made it clear he's not closing up shop just yet:
"There will be more to come. I haven't decided how many yet but I'm enjoying myself and don't plan to stop just yet."
What 'Clown Town' is actually about
Before the book hit shelves, Herron teased that this one is a present-day Slough House story that digs into a very real and very ugly intelligence operation from the height of the Troubles. It bounces between now and events from about 40 years ago, and it sits with the fallout — the trauma that lingers for the people involved. The big thematic question he's poking at: what it does to an agent to do something that's supposedly for the good of the country, but is ethically murky and personally scarring. Grim, timely, very Slough House.
About those season 5 changes
Herron also flagged that the new season doesn't color inside the lines the whole time. There are some notable departures from the 'London Rules' plot — changes he says he enjoyed, and a few he actually pushed for himself. Always nice when the author is on board with the remix.
Bottom line: Slow Horses season 5 is live now with its first episode on Apple TV+, officially rolling out from 24 September 2025. More TV on the way, more books on the way. Slough House is not clocking out anytime soon.