Continuity Nod: Since the novel is at least partly intended to be a Grand Finale of sorts to the literary Bond's story, there are understandably numerous references and allusions to the events of Fleming's previous novels. When it is not worth it. Or at least no one convince him that it is all worth it. It is a form of exploitation. I am glad that he wants to quit and I hope he did at the end of this book. Anthony Horowitz has written another solid Bond novel. This is more of a 2 1/2 star book. Horowitz's writing is as griping as it usually is and I loved the way all his Bond books are set within the Fleming universe. But this one coming straight after The Man with the Golden Gun was a little hard to get into due to the plot being a little preposterous. Most Bond plots are a little preposterous but this one really pushed the envelope. It was a good read and a nice end to Horowitz's trilogy. Bain goes undercover at a seedy seaside resort to investigate a young woman's murder. Then Hannah shows up for her own holiday, much to her father's chagrin.

The novel is set in 1964, immediately after The Man with the Golden Gun, the final novel written by Bond creator Ian Fleming. After recovering from his near-fatal encounter with Francisco Scaramanga at the end of that novel, Bond undertakes a dangerous undercover mission behind the Iron Curtain in a bid to infiltrate a group of former SMERSH agents planning an operation that will change the balance of world power. Along the way, he must wrestle with his inner demons, and deal with the fallout of the brainwashing he'd suffered the last time he was in Soviet hands. At the end of the last Fleming book The man with the Golden Gun we get the return of the oldish 007 more or less. The James Bond before he met his wife Teresa.

The sense of well being come from not only not being harmed. The sense of wellbeing come from accepting the risk and the harm and feel it is all worth it. It is 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. While being subjected to physical and psychological torture in the "magic room" by Colonel Boris, Bond hallucinates people and events from previous novels, including Scaramanga, Rosa Klebb, and the poisonous centipede that Dr. No once sent to kill him.

By the time you read this review it may well be redundant. The publishers kindly sent me a review copy earlier in the year, but – thanks mainly, I suspect, to the Spanish postal service – it never arrived. They couriered a second copy, but the result is this review published almost a fortnight after the book was first released. Bookends: In the first Bond novel Casino Royale Bond contemplates resigning from the Secret Service after his torture at Le Chiffre's hands while his friend Mathis tries to convince him not to. In this novel, which serves as a coda to Fleming's canon, Bond recalls that conversation with Mathis, revisits his decision to resign from the Service, and this time round is determined to see it through. Not nearly as ingenious as Horowitz’s meta-whodunits but well above average among post–Ian Fleming Bonds.

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. When a teenager turns up dead in a Celtic burial ground, the top suspects are her scorned boyfriend and the local psychic who discovered her. Inconsolable with grief, the victim's family decides to take justice into their own hands. Although Horowitz may not have the detailed descriptive talent of Ian Fleming his characters are spot on. Katya Leonova is a wonderful creation & worthy of any Fleming novel, as are many of the characters throughout this novel.