4-5 stars

Double O #2

A bomb is planted at the BBC, saved from doing its worst by the swift actions of 008 a.k.a. Dodger McIntyre, who is seriously injured in the process. Q detects a pattern as six days prior to an attack, objects worth £1 million plus leave a freeport, such as Heraklion or Venice and are sold at Sothebys, a black market to a white. A nefarious smuggling gang of diamonds, antiquities, and people funds a secretive network, where money is king, and which in turn funds global terror. Are Rattenfänger, a global crime group behind it all? MI6 finest 00 agents are sent to various world locations to try to stop the shadowy organisation unleash its latest barbarity and they’re in a race against time. Meanwhile, 003, Johanna Harwood, is not on active duty, still in recovery from her last op. She is convinced 007 is still alive and held somewhere deep and dark by Rattenfänger. Will she follow orders or go rogue?

Yet again, Kim Sherwood has done a good job of capturing the spirit of Ian Fleming via Johanna and of course, the usual cast of M, Moneypenny, Q and in this one 004 (Joseph Dryden), and 000 (Conrad Harthrop Vane). She makes me feel as if I’m watching one of the Bond legendary movies as the storytelling is so visual. I love the clever clock/time theme that runs throughout this and it’s used to great creative effect and it’s quite the metaphor for some of the cast. As for the starring role featuring 003 Johanna Harwood I feel we get to understand her even better this time. There’s more on her background and as she delves deeper she makes some bone chilling discoveries. The supporting characters, especially Dryden and Harthrop Vane are also well portrayed and easy to picture.

It’s an intelligent plot, it’s well thought out, it’s definitely complex with several subplots and so you really need to focus and concentrate which is no bad thing. At times it’s high octane, movie worthy, action, packed, fast paced, and hold your breath tense. It’s dramatic, absorbing and exciting and has all the ingredients you would expect to find in the originals. Naturally it has multiple twists and turns almost delivering whiplash towards the end. The ending leaves you hanging, teetering on the edge of a cliff which is just terrific.

Overall, roll on number three and the other bonus of this instalment is that you get an excellent world tour in some truly out of this world locations from the comfort of your armchair. A cracking, entertaining thriller, which I thoroughly enjoy and can recommend to fans of the genre.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to HarperCollins, Harper Fiction for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

The Double Os are back and still reeling following the events of Double Or Nothing. The narrative begins with a bombing at BBC New Broadcasting House and continues at breakneck speed through a plot that takes in global terrorism funded by human trafficking, art theft & diamond smuggling and again features cameos by a few familiar faces.

The story is packed with all the Bond tropes readers have come to expect: globetrotting, glamorous women and gadgets. Well, not so much of the latter as Kim Sherwood keeps these to a bare minimum. It's just Bond himself who's still MIA, but despite this A Spy Like Me works surprisingly well. So much so that I'm surprised it hasn't been tried before.

This is helped in large part by the Double O agents and supporting cast Sherwood has created. Here we have a diverse group of characters, many with backgrounds and motivations that are not immediately evident.

Another masterstroke is pulling Moneypenny away from her secretarial duties and putting her at the head of the Double O Section. This is clearly a Moneypenny modelled after Naomie Harris's take on the character in the Daniel Craig films. One who's seen active service, wasn't comfortable with it, but has found her place.... And it's no longer behind a desk!

Do the Double Os find Bond?

Do we discover who's behind Rattenfanger?

Well, that would be telling.

A Spy Like Me is book two in the Double O trilogy of action adventures set in a new extended world of James Bond.

The story opens with a bomb in London’s BBC buildings which has team leader Ms Moneypenny and her double Os scrambling for answers and making guesses. There’s also a leak in MI6 which needs plugging and no-one knows if missing OO7 is still alive.

The story clips along at a fast pace with double O spies being sent across the world as they follow Moneypenny’s hypothesis about a triple-headed operation to channel funds into terrorism. Die-hard fans of the original Bond stories and films may shake their heads; Q is now a computer, M is semi-retired, add in the mention of characters and incidents from Fleming’s tales and I can understand that this won’t be suited to everyone.

I liked the story for its loose familiarity with the Bond themes and its attempt to continue the fight against evil in the 21st century. The storyline was entertaining and I liked the world-tour, especially the scenes set in Venice. However, due to the quantity of characters and large number of scene changes it was often hard to keep them all fixed in my mind. This will likely be a marmite book, one either loved or hated; good if you have enjoyed the Bond character and scenario in the past, but aren’t necessarily huge fans, but disliked by Bond devotees.

Did I enjoy it? I don’t really know. Perhaps the author was trying too hard to be a bit Bondish, but it failed to hit the mark with me. That, however, is not to say that I won’t read read more by the author.

A Spy Like Me follows on the heels of Double or Nothing. Weirdly the two novels have Bond as their theme but neither has Bond in evidence, until of course the cliffhanger at the conclusion of this latest book. A Spy Like Me has all the ingredients of a Bond film. Locations all over the world, some rather exotic. Action everywhere. Double agents and a lot of lovely ladies trying to find Bond (frequently reminiscing over past encounters). I really enjoyed it. Fast paced and very intriguing. We also learn of the secret world of antiquities trafficking, La Biennale di Venezia, the workings of Southeby's and the portability of some very expensive, crystal structured, shiny carbon. However, the novel leaves more loose ends than a weaver caught short. Maybe there will be a novel to follow, which takes these threads and weaves them anew?

Unfortunately I did not like this book. It was ok but I found it hard to get engaged and understand the plot. There just seemed to be too many characters and story lines.
The only thing that would make we read the next one was the ending. A bit of a cliffhanger.

An impressive follow up which proves Bond is not dead.

Following the events of "Double or Nothing", the MI6 double-o agents, under Moneypenny, are still recovering from the trauma they all suffered. The search for James Bond continues, but when a bomb goes off at the BBC it becomes clear that a major terrorist campaign is underway, and more is to come, and the search for 007 takes on a new dimension. Soon, agents 000, 003 and 004 are deployed in a race against time to uncover those behind the atrocities. Rattenfänger is still on the board!

Before you know it the team are deployed here, there and everywhere as they try to determine who's behind the attacks. Old faces appear, some cleverly from the original Fleming books, and threads from the first book carry forward nicely. There are new villains, and exotic locations, and each agent faces their own challenges. It's a complex, fast-moving story, which hangs together far better than did the previous one. There's a large cast of characters and locations to keep track of and some time-hopping which is annoying, but it's never less than entertaining. The "easter-eggs" from the previous book still pop up here, too - fans will be reaching for the original books to check names.

The background to this book is the world of trafficking - art, antiquities, diamonds and people - and how the proceeds are used directly to fund terrorism. And it's partly this well-researched and well-painted canvas which lifts "A Spy Like Me" above its predecessor. The search for Bond takes second place to the race to expose a world-wide business and those who lead it. It takes the agents from Amsterdam to Venice, from France to Afghanistan, as they each uncover a part of the puzzle. Many of the critics of "Double or Nothing" cited the absence of Bond as its weakness, and the constant references to him got in the way of the story. There's much less of this here, and the agents are given much more "screen-time" - so much so, that it can be difficult to keep up with who is where, and when. Die-hard Fleming fans may still cringe at Moneypenny as the head of MI6, and Q as a supercomputer, but his legacy is much more evident this time around.

Towards the end of the book there are some reveals which prove somewhat lame, but the speed at which the story races to a climax makes them forgivable. Fleming purists may still turn their noses up at this attempt to reimagine / reboot the Bond books, and I count myself as one of those who was less than enthusiastic about "Double or Nothing", but this story has made me think perhaps there's better stuff to come. I still struggle with the fact that characters from the original books appear in this updated world (just how old would Moneypenny and Leiter be??) but let's put that aside.

Bond fans should definitely pick this book up, and dive into a new era for our hero. The story isn't over yet.

Wow this book grips you from page one and keeps you on a rollercoaster for the whole book, MI6 agents coming together to fight against terrorists threats. Really enjoyable read