A Reluctant Spy

Jamie is in the Legend programme, where he lives a low-profile life in return for help with his finances and career. At some point, he will lend his identity to a spy on a mission so create a true backstory. When he goes to meet the agent in Paris to do the exchange of passports and go their separate ways, Jamie finds his handler has been killed and no sign of Garnet, the agent. In the meantime, there has been a breach of security in London and the Legends programme is compromised. Jeremy and the fabulous Sally Lime are racing against time to protect their agents and find the traitors.
Jamie flies to Zanzibar instead of Garnet and gets mixed up with Russian gangsters and in all sorts of trouble. He gets help from Nicola and the local team, and the Tanzanian secret service, who would rather this wasn't happening there.
I really enjoyed this, Jamie is very understated, but humourous, and thrives on the challenges that he meets. Lots of plot twists and a nail biting finale. Recommended.

A Reluctant Spy has two big things going for it.

First, the concept is fresh and interesting: the Legend programme is a unique idea I've not seen done anywhere else in spy-thriller land, and it makes for a fantastic set-up. Normal people who give their identities over to spies for a short time in exchange for a smooth and easy life makes sense in today's digital age; you need that footprint for a believable cover story. We all love a fish-out-of-water moment, and with this set-up we have a perfect reason for Jamie to get sucked into a high-stakes situation with all plausible deniability. Goodman does a fantastic job of making every step of this feel natural and logical; though from the outside it sounds wild, while you're reading it makes perfect sense and you are rooting for Jamie to make it through undiscovered every step of the way.

This leads onto the second highlight: the propulsive, catchy writing that keeps you turning each page, hungry for more. Scenes and settings are described with evocative clarity, action sequences are quick and exciting, and characters are well-drawn and root-for-able (Sally Lime!!). A Reluctant Spy is a joy to read, showcasing both the best qualities of spy thrillers with a unique premise all its own. Highly recommended!

A fine new entry into the spy genre.

"A Reluctant Spy" opens in 2003, where an undercover agent finds himself in deep water when, during an interrogation, his cover is blown wide open by someone simply carrying out an internet search.

Fast forward to the present, and said agent is responsible for a department whose sole job is to create "legends" - totally authentic cover stories for agents going undercover. They're authentic because they belong to real people, living real lives, but who occasionally allow someone to "borrow" their life while they enjoy a holiday somewhere secret. What cover story could be more unbreakable? That's what Jamie Tulloch thought - his instructions are to make contact in Paris, where an agent will adopt his persona, while he Jamie, heads off to the sun to a few months. Except when he gets there, the contact is dead.

And so the reader, and Jamie, are drawn into an increasingly dangerous and complex drama, as he takes it upon himself to step into the agent's shoes. He travels to Zanzibar where he gets involved with the Russian mafia and arms traders, and it's only when his handlers discover what's happened that they realise he has a knack for the job. He agrees to continue, with the help of Nicola, his handler. The repartee between them is very good, and I'd like to read more of them.

The book takes place in London, where the intelligence service is trying to determine who has hacked their network, and Zanzibar. The events in London as wonderfully described, as departments seek to apportion blame or garner credit for saving the day. Like the works of LeCarre and Deighton, "A Reluctant Spy" places an amateur firmly in an in-over-his-head situation, where events drag him along at a pace. In fact the whole book moves along at a fair old page-turning pace, stopping occasionally to examine the scenery (Zanzibar with all its sights and smells) or lingering on Jamie as he struggles to maintain his cover. If he sometimes appears a bit too able to cope, it just adds to the drama. Jamie is a Scot, and fellow Scots will enjoy his occasional lapse into colloquial speech when he's under pressure.

Fans of spy / espionage stories are going to lap this book up - it's a perfect blend of old-school spying and new-school technology. The author is a fellow Scot, already the author of several SF novels, but this move into spy territory is inspired. If you're a fan of Charles Beaumont and Matthew Richardson, it's right up your street. Heartily recommended.

Incredibly written, a plot that gripped me and wouldn’t let me go, character study that made me love our hero a bit. Clever, relentless and a wild ride.

I cannot recommend this enough for anyone who enjoys espionage novels and wants a pretty new take on it.

Brilliant.

How on earth is this a debut novel? Takes everything I love about military fiction and distils it down into a tightly-plotted, fast-paced, complex espionage tale with a very human element.
The twin storylines in London and Zanzibar were seamlessly interwoven so that I was fully invested in both, and the stakes were real enough and high enough to have me regularly yelling at the page (mostly along the lines of "Jamie, you bloody idiot, do not go in there!").
Highly recommended to anyone who loves thrillers, espionage tales, or military fiction.
I can't wait to see what this author does next.

Not my usual genre but sounded intriguing and I'm glad I downloaded.
Found it really exciting from the start with plenty to get stuck into. A really clever and totally unique take on a spy thriller that starts at the dawn of the internet age (1980s).
High stakes, engaging characters, neat plotting and a genuinely unexpected twist.

In spy terminology, a legend is a false identity, usually backed up by a history that will withstand a rudimentary Google search. In A Reluctant Spy, the author takes the ‘legend’ one step further. Jamie Tulloch, a Scottish tech salesman, has been selected as a legend. A spook will become Jamie, the real life version can enjoy a holiday in the tropics, all courtesy of HM Government. But when Culloch turns up to the rendezvous, he finds his handler dead. As if that wasn’t bad enough, there’s no sign of the doppelgänger, the man who will be Tulloch. Jamie could back out, but that’s not his style. He’s come this far. After all, he can bluff it with the best of them.

Follow Jamie as he fronts it out in exotic locations and reinvents the rules for black ops. Some wonderful dialogue and a touch of the Barney Thomson cynicism as Jamie grows into pretending to be someone pretending to be himself.

A Reluctant Spy is a fresh and vibrant read, delivering a welcome shot in the arm to the spy fiction genre.

I read an advance copy of The Reluctant Spy through NetGalley. My thanks to the publisher.

A Reluctant Spy follows Jamie Tulloch, a civilian participant in the fictional Legends Programme, in which he and other volunteers like him agree to live personally unattached, low-online-footprint lives and receive helping nudges from the UK government in terms of career and life opportunities; in exchange for this fairly lonely life of professional and financial security, Jamie and the other volunteers have agreed to briefly give up their identity when called upon by the Programme, which allows government agents studied in their civilian counterparts to insert themselves into undercover situations with flawless background personas that would pass even rigorous background checks by the bad guys.
When Jamie’s time comes, he’s told to accept a sudden business trip and given instructions to switch over with his counterpart, agent GARNET, mid-travel—GARNET would assume Jamie’s identity and travel plans and fulfill his undercover mission, and Jamie would travel under a fake identity and have a nice, long vacation.
That was the plan. But Jamie shows up at the appointed meeting place to find that things have gone very wrong, very fast. Without his fake identity and new plane tickets, without his contacts in the Legends Programme, Jamie is stuck going along to the destination meant for his spy counterpart, and he gets swept into the action.
From there, this book is a romp. It is so fun.
Goodman’s descriptive writing is on point. He does an excellent job of making the scenery, the people, and the atmosphere feel real. I think this is an aspect of good writing that sometimes gets overlooked in favor of the more obvious elements—pacing, plot, characters (all of which Goodman is also great at, and we’ll get to that in a moment)—but nailing the vibes in a way that makes the reader want to believe in the fabric of the story itself is a subtler skill that A Reluctant Spy is a great example of.
This book was well-thought out; there were no scenes or plot elements that felt out of place or hurried or poorly-planned. I don’t know enough about international espionage (obviously) to say for sure whether it felt realistic, but it certainly all felt plausible. On top of all that, it was a fun story. I also really enjoyed that this book kept me guessing. The plot was so well-constructed and tightly-woven, all the threads coming together in a series of reveals that didn’t leave any unanswered questions or holes and that all fit so neatly with each other. It’s a book I will almost certainly re-read specifically so that I can go, “Aha! I didn’t catch that before, but it makes sense now that I know this.” I tend to pride myself on being good at figuring out how a story will go, and by the end of this book there were major points I hadn’t guessed and particular character reveals I had more than one suspect for.
The pacing was spot-on, too. Sometimes in a book with multiple POVs I find myself dreading one or more, wishing I could get back to what I feel is the “main one.” Goodman avoids this so well. Each POV character is interesting in their own right and also propels the story in their own ways. And the way the pacing ramps up to an action-packed ending works so well.
Where Goodman really shines is in his character writing. The people feel fleshed-out and real in a way that is so impressive. Character motivations, personalities, tics, habits, appearances, Goodman nails it. I’d love to spend more time on this part of my recommendation, because the character writing deserves it, but I find I’m struggling to do so without giving spoilers (I bet professional reviewers who read and discuss spy thrillers often are better at getting around this, haha).
Overall, I really dig this book. It’s a fast, fun, propulsive read!