Trigger Mortis cover art

Trigger Mortis

A James Bond Novel

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Trigger Mortis

By: Anthony Horowitz
Narrated by: David Oyelowo
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About this listen

Literary legend James Bond returns to his 1950s heyday in this exhilarating thriller by Sunday Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz.

It's 1957 and James Bond (agent 007) has only just survived his showdown with Auric Goldfinger at Fort Knox. By his side is Pussy Galore, who was with him at the end. Unknown to either of them, the USSR and the West are in a deadly struggle for technological superiority. And SMERSH is back.

The Soviet counter-intelligence agency plans to sabotage a Grand Prix race at the most dangerous track in Europe. But it's Bond who finds himself in the driving seat and events take an unexpected turn when he observes a suspicious meeting between SMERSH's driver and a sinister Korean millionaire, Jai Seong Sin.
Soon Bond is pitched into an entirely different race uncovering a plan that could bring the West to its knees.

Welcoming back familiar faces, including M and Miss Moneypenny, international bestselling author Anthony Horowitz ticks all the boxes: speed, danger, strong women and fiendish villains, to reinvent the golden age of Bond in this brilliantly gripping adventure. Trigger Mortis is also the first James Bond novel to feature previously unseen Ian Fleming material.

This is James Bond as Fleming imagined him.©2015 Ian Fleming Publications Ltd and the Ian Fleming Estate
Espionage Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller & Suspense Exciting

Critic reviews

A humdinger of a Bond story, so cunningly crafted and thrillingly placed that OO7's creator would have been happy to own it.... The book is the best Bond movie you'll ever see without actually having to see the movie. (Simon Schama)
TRIGGER MORTIS is a blast. Set two weeks after the end of the novel Goldfinger in 1957, it has a superb plot based around the early space race and features the return of the best Bond girl of them all, Pussy Galore.
Fleming fans certainly won't be disappointed. Trigger Mortis contains all the adrenaline you'd expect from a Bond novel with bags of humour, international jet-setting and a compelling cast of inventively named characters. It is, one suspects, a novel Fleming would be proud to have in the 007 canon.
Almost too good
Horowitz is doing something both clever and audacious...a clever and enjoyable pastiche, which manages to press many of the buttons that were the purview of 007's creator.
There is a delicate line separating imitation from parody and Horowitz stays on the right side of it to perfection.
'Sexy, slick and full of suspense, this new Bond novel is perfect escapism.'
Anthony Horowitz knows exactly what ingredients are required to satisfy even the most gluttonous James Bond fan and serves them up with the confidence of the self-confessed aficionado that he is... In Trigger Mortis the reader finds set pieces expertly handled and genuinely exciting... it all makes for an energetic and satisfying read.
'This supremely well-crafted thriller is an expertly shaken martini of authentic flavours, right down to several heart-pounding set pieces that surely belong on the big screen. Women... are in the driving seat in more senses than one, while Bond is an alluring mix of emotional detachment and death-defying heroics. Pure Pleasure.'
'Ultimately, Horowitz seems to me to have captured the spirit of Fleming more successfully than his recent illustrious predecessors in the Bond-sequel game.' (Jake Kerridge)
Trigger Mortis is cool and restrained... Fleming's best work was possessed of a rather insouciant tone; a wry, weary, mid-century tone that Horowitz captures exactly.
The tension-filled opening sequence is there, the threat to world peace, the race to prevent central Manhattan being blown to smithereens, beautiful women and dodgy gangsters, but, somehow, Bond is more likeable. Daniel Craig would be hard pushed to describe this one as sexist and misogynistic. Mr Horowitz has introduced us to a more rounded hero, but one who won't disappoint the traditionalists.
'Horowitz's brings her [Pussy Galore] back as something like a three-dimensional woman, giving her an arc that surpasses Bond's hackneyed Freudian masculinity... He delivers the tersely precise prose that makes Bond so compelling, but more than that, he also supplies touches of Fleming's cruel poetry.'
'Horowitz has an amazing facility for narrating action, and the set-pieces are terrific... the final 50 pages pass in a breathless rush of excitement.'
All stars
Most relevant
This is a book I've throughly enjoyed, the action sequences and build up the the climatic set piece kept me guessing every turn of the page and Horowitz's writing is infectiously addictive. I e read the book over the course of four months reading and listening two chapters a night and it is a well worth listen and read for James Bond fans.

Entering the world of 007

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I enjoyed it but the following statement was overused at the end: "but somehow, he managed to break free..". 😃

it was OK. read well

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at first I thought the story was going to be rather dated but soon one is drawn into the fifties era and everything fits wonderfully. the narrator was perfect for this story.

007 lives on

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Really enjoyable. Totally spoiled myself by reading the book and listening. Got totally immersed and easily swapped between book and audio. Horowitz has done it again and produced something the original writer would have been proud of.

Authentic

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Thoroughly enjoyable follow on novel, a huge improvement over Carte Blanche and Solo. A real echo of a Fleming story, understandable I suppose as it contains some primal Fleming material. Well done Anthony Horowitz, when's the next one?

Best Bond follow on since Sebastian Faulks.

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