Headline acquires my second novel SOLITARY AGENTS

Let me tell you folks, I am having quite a week.

Earlier today, the Bookseller published the announcement that my second novel, SOLITARY AGENTS, has been acquired by Toby Jones at Headline Books, who published A RELUCTANT SPY with me last year.

Here's the pitch:

SOLITARY AGENTS follows Jamie Tulloch and Sam Li, two people who 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?

You look like you might have questions after reading that! Let's get to it.

Is this another Legends book?

It is, although the scope widens a little to include other elements of MI5, MI6 and the CIA. But Jamie, Nicola, Jeremy, Sally Lime and a few others from the first book will return for this novel. There's also going to be new POV characters and some from the first book will get their own chapters this time. Some of them were a lot of fun to write.

When is it going to be out?

The current date I have is June 4th, 2026 for the hardback, ebook and audio, a little under a year from now. A paperback edition will follow later.

Can I pre-order it?

Pre-order links should be available tomorrow - I'll update this post and my Links page, as well as posting on social media.

What does the cover look like?

That's also coming very soon - I'll post a new post specifically for the cover, but I'll also add it here.

Is the book written?

Yes, it's currently with my editor and I hope to be working on structural and line edits fairly shortly. Now that the news is public I'll be writing about that process on my blog. For those of you who have been reading for a while, SOLITARY AGENTS was what I referred to as PROJECT SCARLET over the past eight or nine months.

I have a question you haven't answered...

Just @ me on Instagram or Bluesky and I'll be happy to answer anything I'm able to about the book, although I won't be spoiling plot points, locations or character details.

One of the first questions I got when A RELUCTANT SPY came out was whether there was going to be another book and I'm very happy that I can now publicly say yes. I hope you're going to enjoy reading it as much I did writing it.