Once in Russia though, he meets the obvious requisite love interest in the form of Katya Leonova, an ice queen who can only be thawed by Bond’s penus. The book is slow to get moving but the first part at least ends with a decent set piece as Bond escapes his captors on Tower Bridge and leaves Blighty behind for Moscow. Which is fine as a premise but the end result is really boring. Apparently Bond was brainwashed in that novel by the KGB to assassinate M but never did it, and With a Mind to Kill picks up the story two weeks after that book ends, and Horowitz has Bond pretend to actually follow through with that scheme so that he can get in close to the Russians and foil whatever plans they’ve got going. It’s because of reading Goldfinger that I probably won’t read any more Ian Fleming novels so I haven’t read the novel that With a Mind to Kill takes its cue from: The Man with the Golden Gun. Like Trigger Mortis, the sequel to Goldfinger, which seemed to be a book of car descriptions. There aren’t many books by Horowitz that I haven’t enjoyed - if I’d finished them, I’m sure I’d have given Trigger Mortis and Moonflower Murders bad reviews too - but, for whatever reason, whenever he ties his Bond story to an Ian Fleming novel, the results are always disappointing (maybe because Fleming was a crap writer, he’s bringing Horowitz down to his level?). But once back in the Russians’ hands, will Bond remain mentally sound enough to accomplish his mission or will his KGB brainwashing overpower him?Īnthony Horowitz’s third and final Bond novel, With a Mind to Kill, is unfortunately pretty bad. J.K.: One of the challenges facing a writer is putting himself into the minds of his characters, and The Twist of a Knifemarks the fourth time you have put yourself in your own mind, so to speak.To infiltrate and uncover the secret diabolical plans of a new Soviet outfit called Stalnaya Ruka, James Bond must pretend to assassinate M and turn traitor. This didn’t stop two or three critics complaining in the newspapers! But Harriet Throsby is a monster.

Very early on, when I was thinking about the book, I decided to make the critic who is murdered as unlikely as possible so that nobody would think she was based on them.

I have no grudge against critics-either as a group or individually. “I live inside the book.”ĪNTHONY HOROWITZ: Actually, you’re wrong. May I assume you had a particular critic in mind … “When I write … I don’t really have a reader in mind,” Horowitz says. You actually wrote a play of that name more than 20 years ago. JIM KELLY: Let’s start with your new book, The Twist of a Knife, which is the latest in a series starring Anthony Horowitz, who in this installment is suspected of murdering a theater critic who has just trashed his play Mindgame.

Anthony horowitz bond