Trigger Mortis: A James Bond Novel
Ian Fleming wrote only fourteen Bond novels, but new titles continue to be published, no doubt in part due to the enormous success of the movie franchise. Trigger Mortis, written by bestselling author Anthony Horowitz, is the latest addition. Horowitz is a self-confessed fan of Ian Fleming and was able to incorporate some of Fleming’s original work in this book.
Trigger Mortis is set in the 1950s, during the early space race between the U.S. and the Soviets, and follows Goldfinger in time. It contains all the iconic Bond elements: a nefarious plot by SMERSH (the Soviet counterintelligence agency), a psychopathic villain, fancy cars and high-speed races, numerous close-calls for our hero, the attractive American agent Jeopardy Lane, and lastly, a crisis of such enormity that Bond must again risk his life to save the Western world. Though set decades in the past, the story should satisfy modern Bond fans. Not to take anything away from Horowitz, but in truth, no one wrote James Bond better than Ian Fleming himself.