Solitary Agents, by David Goodman
Source: Advance ebook copy, Headline
Published: June 2026
Jamie Tulloch and Sam Li never intended to be spies. Jamie, a former exec at a tech company, found himself caught up in a mission and discovered a taste for the secret world while Sam, a burnt-out corporate lawyer, was unexpectedly talent spotted by MI5. When both are plunged into covert training, they find themselves pitted against each other for their final evaluation – Exercise Red Poacher.
Every year, MI6 trainees must evade capture, infiltrate sensitive sites and report back with the right intel, while their peers at MI5 try to stop them. But things take a sinister turn when they witness the apparent murder of one of their fellow recruits. Is it all part of the exercise? Or is someone trying to weaponise this game of spies into something far more deadly?
I absolutely loved David Goodman’s first book, the superb A Reluctant Spy (one of my books of the year for 2024 and winner of the Old Peculier McDermid Debut Award and the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize), about which I said:
Properly good spy novel to keep you up at night reading just one more chapter. Edge-of-your-seat action, and a cracking plot. Goodman is one to watch.
Well friends, watch him I did (and met him at Harrogate last summer, and at Stockport Noir in January), and he’s back with the sequel, Solitary Agents, a short review of which, might read something like
Another properly good spy novel to keep you up at night reading just one more chapter. Edge-of-your-seat action, and a cracking plot. Goodman is still one to watch.
OK, fine.
Following on from the (mis)adventures of everyone’s favourite not-quite spy Jamie Tulloch, we find him here having signed up to do the job properly. Naturally, things start going awry fairly quickly, and Jamie finds himself on the run from MI5. What follows is a properly good spy novel…
Look, it is! It’s really really good. Properly tense, fantastic characters, some absolutely superb action and a growing sense of dread that Jamie, whilst now trained up, is rapidly heading out of his depth, and the sharks are sensing blood and starting to circle.
I loved the first book a lot. And the second is even better. If you like spy thrillers, or just thrillers, or just damn good adventure stories, David Goodman needs to be firmly on your lists.
Highly recommended. Get yourself a copy of The Reluctant Spy now (out in paperback from your friendly local indie bookshop, bookshop.org) and catch up with Jamie’s adventures before Solitary Agents hits the shelves in June.
Thank me later.
Solitary Agents by David Goodman is published by Headline in June 2026. Many thanks to the publisher for the advance copy of David Goodman’s book for review.
