With a Mind to Kill
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  • Published: 18 July 2023
  • ISBN: 9781529114928
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $22.99

With a Mind to Kill

The explosive new James Bond thriller from the no.1 Sunday Times bestseller

Formats & editions
Paperback
18 Jul 2023
Tr. Paperback
31 May 2022
EBook
26 May 2022
Audiobook
26 May 2022
Hardback
22 Jun 2022
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A spy is dead. A legend is born. This is how it all began. The explosive prequel to Casino Royale, from bestselling author Anthony Horowitz.

The story begins in Moscow where a new organisation, Stalnaya Ruska, Iron Hand - a successor to Smersh - is planning a major act of terrorism which is intended to destabilise relations between east and west.

Meanwhile, Bond is returning from Jamaica and his encounter with Scaramanga (The Man with the Golden Gun). He is aware of a world that is changing all too rapidly around him. The old certainties of the post-years have gone. The intelligence services are no long trusted. He is beginning to wonder if his "license to kill" may even be valid any more.

As he ponders his own future, Bond is given his next assignment: discover what Stalnaya Ruska is planning and prevent it from happening. To do this, he will have to make the Russians believe he is a double agent and travel behind the Iron Curtain.

But first, he will have to persuade Sonya Dragunova that he is what he says he is. A psychiatric analyst as brilliant as she is beautiful, Sonya knows more of what's happening in Bond's mind than he does himself. She is also hiding secrets of her own. This is a love affair that is also a very dangerous game.

And Sonya is working for a man who has played his part in two Bond novels but has never yet appeared. A Fleming creation, the evil genius behind Stalnaya Ruka may be Bond's most dangerous enemy yet.
  • Published: 18 July 2023
  • ISBN: 9781529114928
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $22.99
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About the author

Anthony Horowitz

Bestselling author Anthony Horowitz has written two highly acclaimed Sherlock Holmes novels, The House of Silk and Moriarty; two James Bond novels, Trigger Mortis and Forever and a Day; three Detective Hawthorne novels, The Word is Murder, The Sentence is Death and the forthcoming A Line To Kill, and the acclaimed bestselling mystery novels Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders.

He is also the author of the teen spy Alex Rider series, and responsible for creating and writing some of the UK's most loved and successful TV series, including Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War. In January 2014 he was awarded an OBE for his services to literature.

Also by Anthony Horowitz

Close to Death
The Twist of a Knife
A Line to Kill
Moonflower Murders
The Sentence is Death
Forever and a Day
The Word Is Murder
See all

Praise for With a Mind to Kill

An enjoyably compact thriller, with an absolutely killer last line.

Guardian

Horowitz is a worthy successor to Ian Fleming, putting 007 back in his true domain. This New Bond is up there with the better Old Bonds. The denouement is a very fine piece of action writing. Horowitz has done splendidly.

Scotsman

A novel that feels very like a film. fast-paced, skilfully written. leaves you wanting more, and for serious Bond junkies [it] is the next fix in a long tale of addiction.

The Times

Straight away Horowitz is able to capture Fleming's flowing style and intricate details from how Bond likes his eggs in the morning to the cars he drives... He's just as faithfully suave as in the original novels.

Daily Express

Highly enjoyable.

Metro

[Horowitz's Bond] is once again in safe hands, not departing much from Fleming's entertaining formula... Horowitz's light touch and smooth plotting create something close to the ideal holiday read.

Irish Examiner

Exciting high drama. Horowitz stays loyal to the fabulous Fleming formula. And for that he surely deserves another mission guiding the fortunes of the world's favourite superspy.

Daily Express

Even better than Trigger Mortis. it is tremendous fun. Anthony Horowitz has the discipline and skill of a first-class action writer.

Sunday Express

This is another great new James Bond novel from Horowitz, who's filling the shoes of Ian Fleming with apparent ease.

Trucking

Forever and a Day is an explosive prequel to Casino Royale which promises to please Bond aficionados and a new legion of fans.

Northern Insight **Book of the Month**

Anthony Horowitz's second James Bond book will keep 007 obsessives happy with martinis, beautiful women and an enormously fat Corsican gangster.

The Times *Best New Novels*

Horowitz shows that he knows the Fleming books backwards, offering plot twists that are homages to the master's novels. This nicely imagined book... is an amusing and thought-provoking addition to the post-Fleming bond canon.

The Times *Audiobook of the Week*

Anthony Horowitz writes Bond in the style of Fleming... Total brain candy in the best possible fashion.

Rick O'Shea, RTE Guide

The super spy is back, with a fresh injection from novelist and screenwriter extraordinaire, Anthony Horowitz. The expert in suspense takes us back to the beginning of James Bond's story. the story rips along with plenty of familiar Bond staples: evil villains, fast cars and women falling for young Bond's charms. Ian Fleming would be proud.

Guardian

Horowitz proves himself so adept at getting inside the iconic character, and Fleming's writing style, that it's difficult to see the join. Rip-roaringly recommended.

Pat Carty, Hot Press

Horowitz.captures the mood, pace and style of Fleming very well. the story thunders along with action galore in the Bond tradition. It whets the appetite for the 25th Bond film.

Alex Gordon, Peterborough Evening Telegraph

A rattling good thriller from an undoubted master of the genre.

Choice