Solitary Agents by David Goodman (Headline £20, 432pp)

Disillusioned tech executive, Jamie Tulloch, who found himself entangled in the world of espionage in Goodman’s award-winning debut A Reluctant Spy in 2024, returns in this sequel.

He found he had a taste for the shadowy world and agrees to undergo training for MI6. Meanwhile, burnt-out corporate lawyer Sam Li is quietly asked if she would consider joining MI5.

Their two lives come together at their separate training in Exercise Red Poacher – where the MI6 team have to infiltrate targets and report back, while their MI5 counterparts have to stop them.

Then one of the recruits seems be murdered. Is it part of the exercise or more sinister? This is the most exciting new spy series since Slow Horses: catch it now.

The Death Row Club by V. A. Vazquez (Simon & Schuster £16.99, 336pp)

Is there such a thing as an ‘evil’ gene? This striking debut from an American who lived in Scotland asks the reader to answer that question. It tells the story of Nicola Fischer, whose father was revealed by a TV documentary to have murdered five women.

The effect on Nicola’s life is traumatic. She loses her friends and her job as a teacher and is condemned as someone who may have helped her father – even though he killed her closest friend.

Then she is invited to join a group of other adult children of serial killers at a weekend retreat in an isolated lodge – where one of them is killed.

Part description of life as the child of a serial killer and part thrilling mystery, it is an outstanding story written with empathy, tension and style.

Red Verdict by James Comey (Head of Zeus £20, 352pp)

Even in the midst of a terrible year, when the former FBI director was pursued relentlessly by the Department of Justice in the US – he’s still facing charges relating to alleged threats to US President Donald Trump – Comey found the concentration to write his fourth captivating thriller.

In it, Deputy US Attorney General Nora Carleton confronts the poisoning of a senior defence industry executive in a Manhattan restaurant with Novichok – which was also used in the Salisbury attacks in 2018.

But who was behind it – and why? Was it the Russians? Is there a mole in Washington? Bristling with authentic detail about the intelligence agencies’ methods, the finale is a stunning court case with suggestions of political influence from the CIA, among others. It proves just what a superb storyteller Comey has become.