Anthony Horowitz delivers another fast-paced 007 spy thriller with some material written by the series creator Ian Fleming. Set just before the events of the novel, Casino Royale, the story follows James Bond as he gets his two assigned kills to get his Double-O number, and throws him into a case that helps shape the character he becomes.

Given his first assignment by M, Bond is to head to the south of France to investigate the death of the former 007 who was killed investigating a female spy from the Second World War, an American millionaire working in developing a new type of film for the industry, and a corpulent Corsican gangster.

The story races along at full throttle, and keeps the readers engaged from the get-go, giving us hints to the way the character grew into the agent with a license to kill.

With an amazing attention to detail, and engaging in the same punchy prose that made Fleming’s novels so much fun to read, Horowitz’s tale fits in nicely with the established timeline of the literary Bond character.

It’s fun, engaging and works like gangbusters. Bond excels at his craft, but he’s not perfect, and that is something that is highlighted a couple of times, yet he proves himself over and over.

I like to go into all of the 007 novels blind. I don’t need to read the blurb on the back, I’m quite willing to just dive into the story, and see what happens. Both of Horowitz’s entries completely new me away, and ties in so masterfully well with Fleming’s writing that they feel like the perfect continuation of his own work.

There are no real gadgets, just Bond’s wits and skills, and he is ready to go toe to toe with the baddies that the narrative introduces. But he’s going to experience a lot of pain by the story’s end, both physical and emotional.

Forever and a Day is a top-notch 007 story, and that’s awesome. The downside is that there is only one more novel by Horowitz, and only two more James Bond books in the series to date. Sure, there’s the Young Bond series (added to reading list) and two novels in a spin-off series, but man, I really wish Horowitz had a whole collection of 007 stories.

This one was a fun and bracing read that I tore through, and I loved it. So I’m very excited to say that James Bond will return in… With a Mind to Kill.