LOOKING FORWARD FRIDAY: A TRAITOR’S CALL by DAVID GOODMAN
2026 was an extraordinary good year for espionage novels, with an impressive roll call of high quality books by some of the genre’s best authors.
The early signs are that 2027 is also shaping up to be an entertaining year with new books by Paul Warner (Funeral For A Spy), Charles Beaumont (A Spy Returns), Paul Vidich (The Shepherd) and Alma Katsu (The Invisible Enemy) already announced. I also just got a copy of David Goodman’s new spy novel, A Traitor’s Call (Headline, 27 May 2027), to read, and it looks very good.
The publisher has provided the following description for A Traitor’s Call:
“WHEN THE MIDNIGHT LINE RINGS, SOMEONE’S IN DANGER.
In the early hours, a terrified call comes into SIS. Russell Finch, a former operative, claims to have information about an imminent attack, that he’ll divulge if two conditions are met.He will only talk, alone and off-the-record, with the newly-recruited Jamie Tulloch – and it must be in ‘The Box’, a grand Pimlico townhouse that’s secretly the most secure safehouse in London: a soundproofed, impenetrable bunker.
But the attack has already begun. A retired SIS officer wanders a Sussex beach with no memory of how he got there. Mysterious drones hover in the sky. Systems crash and roads are gridlocked. And there’s more on the way, with millions riveted by a series of timers ticking down online.
With panic, suspicion and mistrust rising across the country – and at the highest levels of government – the SIS team must race to uncover the origin of this mysterious new threat.
Who’s behind this broad-spectrum chaos? What does Russell Finch know? And why will he only speak to Jamie Tulloch?”
Goodman has already made an impressive start to his spy writing career with his first two books, A Reluctant Spy and Solitary Agents, and it looks as though that form will be carried through to his third book. A Traitor’s Call is not due out until mid-next year, but it is already near the top of my ‘to read’ list, and I hope to get to it shortly.
So far there is only an UK release date for the hardback, 27 May 2027, but I am sure that it will be appearing in other jurisdictions around the same time.
Here is a link to my review of Solitary Agents from earlier this year: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/spy-fiction-2026-solitary-agents-by-david-goodman-and-throw-away-the-key-by-jason-m-hough/