With a Mind to Kill is the latest James Bond novel from Anthony Horowitz and completes a trilogy he started a few years ago. Horowitz takes Bond and his readers back to the Cold War and to Ian Fleming’s initial canon. The story begins not long after Fleming’s The Man with the Golden Gun, in which a brain-washed Bond attempted to kill M, the head of the British Secret Service. M has a plan in which he presents a scenario where Bond had succeeded in his assassination assignment and entices Russia to claim 007 to place him in a position to use his deadly talents against their greatest enemies.
This apparently takes place toward the end of Bond’s career where he is considering if he could lead a different life. Bond has to pretend he is still under the control of Russian spies. Of course, there is a pretty girl who was involved in his initial programming. Bond endures physical and mental torture in order to complete his mission for his government and to settle a few scores.
Horowitz probably comes the closest to emulating Ian Fleming’s writing style while still keeping Bond kind of fresh. He has an interesting story to tell, and Bond just thrives in his familiar territory as an agent in the midst of the Cold War. This book feels like something Fleming would have written if it were not for his untimely death.
Horowitz also doesn’t equip Bond with the peculiar yet familiar gadgets which forces him to rely on his instincts and experience while in the chilly embrace of Moscow.
This recent addition to the James Bond franchise will certainly be a welcome contribution to the fans of the character as originally conceived by Ian Fleming. There is no heavy usage of double entendres, and Bond is back to seducing initially hostile women. He is also back to ruthlessly killing rival spies without regret. This is a James Bond for the purists, and I want more of that.
Next up, I will be reading Faye Kellerman’s Street Dreams.
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