The Clown Service

May 30, 2016
Toby Greene keeps failing as a U.K. intelligence agent. Exiled to Section 37, whose only other member is an elderly man who seems delusional and irrational, Toby’s soon caught up in the ultimate sleeper-agent plot, battling Cold War demons—and his own personal one—in a silly-serious supernatural spy adventure. Adams (Once upon a Time in Hell) struggles with structure; third- and first-person accounts are interspersed with stop-and-start narration of events in present-day London and its recent past. There’s also a sense of familiar ground: a clueless guy gets educated by an older mentor to stop a paranormal threat, aided by a large cast of quirky folks and wink-nod references. Adams makes up for it by creating immediately likable characters and managing to imbue some overused tropes with new (un)life, giving readers just enough incentive to stick with the series.