It’s Bond but not for purists
Forever and a Day By Anthony Horowitz Penguin Random House, $37 .. .. .. .. .. ..
I was one of many who grew up on the original Bond movies.
We’re talking Sean Connery, not your latecomers like Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan et al — back in the days of Goldfinger and Dr No and From Russia With Love.
We never learned too much about Mr Bond’s actual life because he was just there to charm Mss Moneypenny and every passing female, and deal to bad guys. It was the way author Ian Fleming liked it.
Horowitz has written his second Bond book, going back before 007. There was a previous 007 but he’s dead, full of bullets in a river, so Bond gets a promotion and that dinner jacket.
This is pre Casino Royale. There’s a sexy girl of course (who launched the martini shaken not stirred — he just fancied her), there’s a villain, a fat drug dealer called Scipio, there’s a mysterious chemical plant for running about and action scenes, and a cruise ship.
Horowitz wrote the Alex Ryder teen spy series and wrote Midsomer Murders so he’s no Johnny-comelately. He was given access to some of Fleming’s papers so this comes well recommended. But in the era of #metoo, there’s less groping and Bond could possibly be a psychopath.
It’s just not the same.
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