The British Agent by Simon Conway Book Review
Spy Book Review by David Craggs for Spybrary.com
REVIEW: The British Agent by Simon Conway
Publication Date – UK – August 2026
With The British Agent, Simon Conway has delivered a standalone spy thriller novel that will nail you to your deckchair this summer.
The thinking man's (and woman's) actioneer is back, and if there is a finer global thriller this Summer I'll eat my Spybrary coaster. Premier Cru personified.
David Craggs
Set in the run-up to Trump's second term, his latest novel The British Agent starts when three of the most lethal and portable British-manufactured ‘Starstreak' surface-to-air missiles go missing. Destined for use in Ukraine, they are diverted for sinister and nefarious use.
A question in the Commons corners a hapless Defence Secretary who is forced to acknowledge he has no technical way of tracking them. The Americans are furious and he is obliged to convene an inter-departmental working group chaired by diplomat Manus Blessing, who quickly despatches a female SAS technical expert codenamed ‘Chuff' in pursuit of the missiles.
So begins a thrill-a-minute roller coaster ride that takes us, in no particular order, to Ukraine, Washington DC, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Scotland, London, Florida, Cape Cod and back to DC.
En route, we have all the fun of the fair as a dastardly plan emerges to use the missiles to entrap a MAGA militia group hell-bent on revenge following the January 6th Capitol Attack of 2021.
Normally I hold my breath when my favourite authors introduce a female protagonist, but with Conway we are in safe hands. With ‘Chuff' he has created an entirely credible hero who has been saved from a dysfunctional upbringing by the army, which has turned her into a formidable asset. You wouldn't want to mess with her, and she is easy to root for.
As we have come to expect from Simon Conway, the action set pieces are chilling. Few can describe the fog of war with his vividness and descriptive capacity. Together with his sense of place, these attributes put him firmly in the premier league of thriller writers.
I was particularly enthralled by his descriptions of the dispossessed conspiracists that make up these US militias and how, as individuals, they have been abused and manipulated to serve the needs of the powerful. It brought a real dimension to the book.
On finishing, I found myself reflecting on the realistic nature of the plot. When I read Frederick Forsyth's ‘The Devil's Alternative‘ in the '80s, I remembered thinking — yes, this could happen, but our adult leaders would save us. Now the lunatics have completely taken over the asylum we have no such reassurance, and that makes Conway's plot doubly chilling.
All in all, this is an absolute smorgasbord of a novel. It's a chunky monkey — running at 540 pages, it is a living testimony to my mantra that a bad book is always too long and a good one too short. This one is way too short. The thinking man's (and woman's) actioneer is back, and if there is a finer global thriller this summer I'll eat my Spybrary coaster. Premier Cru personified.
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