So it was a downbeat end for the Horowitz Bond trilogy, maybe even qualifying for an Unsatisfactory Ending Alert™. Colonel Boris knows this could not be possible if Bond was still their brainwashed operative in London on mission to assassinate M. Internationally bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s third James Bond novel, after Forever and a Day. Not sure if that's because Bond as a character is like that and this author is staying true to that. A third outing for Anthony Horowitz taking on the mantle of Ian Fleming and delivering a credible and all immersing Cold War thriller.

I think this was the most high stakes mission Bond has ever been on and at some points I was genuinely frightened.When a successful pop singer suddenly retires and comes home to Wales, not everyone applauds her decision. The book is slow to get moving but the first part at least ends with a decent set piece as Bond escapes his captors on Tower Bridge and leaves Blighty behind for Moscow.

It’s because of reading Goldfinger that I probably won’t read any more Ian Fleming novels so I haven’t read the novel that With a Mind to Kill takes its cue from: The Man with the Golden Gun. This is what ultimately motivates him, by the end of this novel, to seriously consider resigning if he survives and makes it back home. It becomes clear that he is a pawn in a Cold War chess game that could change the course of history. Their goal is to implicate the West in the murder of a Soviet leader, which will be a massive propaganda victory for them, while simultaneously clearing the way for a more hardline, uncompromising Stalinist leader to take Khruschev's place and lead Russia to glory.The other possibility is the general rule (it ought to be a law) that the copy never lives up to the original. My only real criticsim is the author's constant references to a huge amount of previous Bond adventures by Ian Fleming. Horowitz displays a thorough knowledge of Bondean tropes, captures the dreariness of Khrushchev-era Russia, and deepens 007 by allowing him a certain ambiguity about his profession. The only sad realisation in finishing the book was that this was the final instalment by Horowitz in his 007 trilogy.