The Times, one of publisher Rupert Murdoch’s “respectable” U.K. publications (as opposed to his trashy tabloids), has provided a preview of Anthony Horowitz’s third James Bond continuation novel, With a Mind to Kill. The novel is scheduled to be published at the end of this month.
Horowitz’s new story begins with a funeral. After a botched attempt to kill M by a brainwashed 007 in Golden Gun, M’s “burial” is now arranged and faked to fool the Russians, allowing Bond, who has now got his patriotic senses back, to go back behind the Iron Curtain to collect intelligence.
Bond must ingratiate himself with evil Colonel Boris, an expert in mind control with a place called “the magic room” in his lair, where 007 has already endured isolation, psychedelic drugs and torture.
Horowitz told The Times he penned the tale “long before the invasion [of Ukraine] began. And I’m just aware that I don’t want to be, as it were, promoting it on the back of what’s happening. It’s difficult, but it is timely, that’s for sure.”
Russian leader Vladimir Putin is a former official in the KGB. He is suspected of ordering the murders of his opponents.
Horowitz’s continuation novels are based on the timeline of Ian Fleming’s original Bond novels. Trigger Mortis took place in the middle of the Fleming timeline (after the events of Goldfinger) while Forever And a Day took place before Fleming’s debut novel Casino Royale.
With a Mind to Kill occurs toward the end of the Fleming literary timeline. Various Bond websites have already received their advance copies so expect a surge of reviews at the end of this month.
Filed under: James Bond Books | Tagged: Anthony Horowitz, Forever and a Day, Rupert Murdoch, The Times, Trigger Mortis, Vladimir Putin, With a Mind to Kill | 1 Comment »
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