“In With a Mind to Kill, I feel my work is complete. A lifetime as a fan of James Bond reflected in three novels that span his own entire life.”
– Anthony Horowitz

SPOILERS!

On May 26 2022 author Anthony Horowitz fires his final, prescient and fascinatingly timely Bond bullet at the world.

After his celebrated Trigger Mortis  (Orion Books, 2015) and Forever and a Day (Jonathan Cape, 2018) successfully repointed Fleming’s spy into a new era whilst straddling the old, Horowitz’s With a Mind to Kill follows the events of the final Fleming novel, The Man With The Golden Gun (1965) – and a promise of a familiar villain in a jet-set era of Cold War intrigue and death.

With a Mind to Kill opens with M’s funeral, One man is missing from the graveside: the traitor who pulled the trigger and who is now in custody, accused of M’s murder — James Bond.

Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former SMERSH agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is smuggled into the lion’s den — but whose orders is he following, and will he obey them when the moment of truth arrives?

In a mission where treachery is all around and one false move means death, Bond must grapple with the darkest questions about himself. But not even he knows what has happened to the man he used to be.

– Ian Fleming Publications

Horowitz is the fourth author in recent years to be invited by Ian Fleming Publications to write an official Bond novel, and the only one to have been invited back in recent times to write three successive ones. (Orion) was published in 2015, followed by Forever and a Day (Jonathan Cape) in 2018.

“I am very excited to have started my third Bond novel with the continuing support of the Ian Fleming estate. Forever and a Day looked at Bond’s first assignment. Trigger Mortis was mid-career. The new book begins with the death of Scaramanga and Bond’s return from Jamaica to confront an old enemy.”

Anthony Horowitz, May 2021

Managing director of Ian Fleming Publications Corinne Turner says “we’re delighted and excited that Anthony has started his third Bond novel. From the nuggets we’ve seen so far, we are confident it will be another bestselling episode in the adventures of 007.”

Author Anthony Horowitz / Photo © Mark O’Connell

With a Mind to Kill is available now to pre-order in hardback, ebook and audio from Jonathan Cape in the UK and Harper Collins in the US.

The audiobook will be read rather aptly by Rory Kinnear (No Time to Die).

Many thanks to the publishing team for the [bullet] proof treat. Review to follow.