Book Review Forever And A Day by Anthony Horowitz

Forever And A Day by Anthony Horowitz

After blowing Sebastian Faulks, Jeffrey Deaver and William Boyd's Bond books out of the water with Trigger Mortis I wasn't exactly surprised to hear Anthony Horowitz had been asked to pen another 007 adventure. Question is, could he live up to Trigger Mortis?  Simple answer? Yes. 

Forever And A Day goes right back to the beginning, when 007 is washed up dead on a beach in Marseille and 2 other agents out of action M is forced to bring in some new talent. His name? Bond. James Bond.  After successfully carrying out his first 2 kills Bond takes over the 007 designation and is instructed by M to find the men who killed the old 007 

Forever and a day mainly takes place in the South of France but not the glamorous parts we've all seen a million times before, instead Horowitz takes bond to the grotty criminal underbelly. 

Like the novel that went before it Trigger Mortis Horowitz has had some help in the form of unseen material from Ian Fleming , the one that gets featured this time round isn't as well fleshed out as the one from trigger mortis but its entertaining all the same.

Forever And A Day is shot through with classic Bond elements ,glamourous locales ,beautiful strong  women, sneaking around , gambling , the obligatory bollocking from M and so on. Madame sixteen, the main Bond girl /woman /lady   I'm not sure what we're meant to be calling them now. Introduces bond to Moorland cigarettes, shaken not stirred martinis and even gives him a cigarette case with "forever and a day" engraved on it.
I  loved Madame 16 and would love to see her in one of the movies someday. Actually, I'd wager that Forever and a day will become the first continuation Bond book to be made into a film. 

I said in my top 5 books of 2018 round up that I couldn't fault forever and a day. But in the last few months I've thought of something wrong with it, it simply isn't long enough. 

Verdict : Cracker 

*No Time To Die spoilers*  actually its all over the news so it's not a spoiler and it's related to forever and a day. Promise. 

You've probably found it hard not to notice that the 007 codename is all over the news at the moment. Apparently Pheobe Waller - Bridge's big idea is that bond at the beginning of the movie at least is replaced as 007 by Lashana Lynch. 

 Think about it. Bond retired at the end of spectre so M would have had to replace him. Just as M in forever and a day had to replace the old 007 with Bond. 

Now I have no problem with this, let's face it She'll either die or be given another 00 number at the end of the movie and order will be restored

For the benefit of people who read the daily mail and the sun SHE'S NOT PLAYING BOND. BOND IS STILL A BLOKE. And…. Breathe. 

 Now we won't know if its true until the movie comes out in April but if its true one can only imagine where she got that idea from……