David Goodman’s A Reluctant Spy was widely acclaimed upon release in 2025, the Legends programme at its heart a clever twist on spy fiction and something the CIA themselves have commented on. The programme sees everyday civilians trade their identities with agents and live a quiet life. That didn’t go to plan for Jamie Tulloch who found himself at the heart of a conspiracy.
The sequel, Solitary Agents, follows Tulloch, who can’t seem to shake the thrill of his escapades in Zanzibar and signs up to be an MI5 trainee. Trouble seems to stick to Jamie like glue, despite his best intentions and he is soon caught up in more hijinks.
Goodman cleverly avoids focusing on the Legends programme here to give this sequel a different flavour and a broader ensemble. While characters from the first novel such as Jeremy and Nicola do appear, we have more than our share of new faces both as antagonists and allies. The main new introduction is Sam Li, like Jamie, a new recruit to SIS, who is quickly partnered with Nicola.
Following the pair adds a fresh angle and keeps it from feeling too much like a retread, the focus being more squarely on a training exercise in the UK, although with visits to Spain and Gibraltar later again give it a distinct flavour of its own. The exercise for the MI5 trainees involves intelligence gathering, while MI6 agents try to thwart their efforts. Things go wrong when they witness a murder.
While much of the focus is on the training exercise and a host of new SIS recruits, it never feels overly repetitive, blurring what is part of the exercise itself and the wider conspiracy that unfolds following the killing. It moves at a frenetic pace as new characters, training manoeuvres and locations are thrown about. It is to Goodman’s credit that he keeps it afloat.
The action, as with A Reluctant Spy, feels believable and never too gratuitous. Much of the suspense comes from the feeling watched as each side tries to stay one step ahead of the other. As with all good spy fiction, the tradecraft is central to what works and Goodman has proven across the course of the two novels, he is more than capable of delivering believable terminology and espionage techniques.
While new characters keep this from feeling stale, the short, snappy chapters and number of different voices can make it a tad difficult to follow on occasion. Even so, the pace rarely lets up, and Jamie remains a distinctive espionage character, more cut out for it than in his first outing but still far from the finished article.
The universe Goodman has created feels wholly his own and original, in no way a facsimile of those any shaped by other masters of the genre. While he is taking a break to dip his toes into the waters of sci-fi, there are hints this might not be our last interaction with this world.
Solitary Agents expertly builds on the concepts and characters introduced in A Reluctant Spy, showing that Goodman truly is one of the most exciting new voices in espionage fiction. New characters like Sam Li build on an already strong roster, with Jamie Tulloch continuing to be a compelling protagonist. There is plenty of humour peppered throughout, but it never distracts from the dramatic tension at the story’s heart and a story that feels frighteningly real.
Read our review of A Reluctant Spy here.
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£9.99
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
