First published 2008
James Bond cuts short his Roman sabbatical when an Algerian drug runner dies brutally in the Paris suburbs. M calls Agent 007 back to London with a new assignment: investigate Dr. Julius Gorner, a pharmaceutical tycoon whose recent fascination with opiate compounds has raised red flags at MI6. Gorner's immense wealth fuels an equally vast appetite for power. Bond partners with Scarlett Papava, an alluring Parisian woman who proves invaluable as the mission intensifies. When a British passenger plane vanishes somewhere over Iraqi airspace, the stakes escalate dramatically. War drums beat louder across the Middle East while dangerous narcotics flood into Britain, a nation already convulsing through the social turbulence of the late 1960s. Bond must navigate Cold War tensions and stop Gorner before his schemes trigger worldwide disaster. The spy faces his most formidable opponent yet in a deadly game where one wrong move could cost everything.
Genres: historical-fiction, adventure, action, espionage
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, spy
Setting: Algeria, Iraq, London, Paris, Roman
Period: 1960s
278 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday