Cape reveals Horowitz’s third official James Bond novel With a Mind to Kill

Details of Anthony Horowitz’s third official James Bond novel, With a Mind to Kill, have been revealed ahead of publication in May 2022. 

The third Bond book by Horowitz, a novelist and screenwriter, is part of a deal between Jonathan Cape, Vintage and Ian Fleming Publications. It will be published on 26th May.

“With a Mind to Kill opens with M’s funeral,” the blurb reads. "One man is missing from the graveside: the traitor who pulled the trigger and who is now in custody, accused of M’s murder — James Bond. Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former SMERSH agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is smuggled into the lion’s den — but whose orders is he following, and will he obey them when the moment of truth arrives?

“In a mission where treachery is all around and one false move means death, Bond must grapple with the darkest questions about himself. But not even he knows what has happened to the man he used to be.”

The cover has an explosive image of smashed glass resembling an eye, and was created by in-house Vintage designer Kris Potter.

Horowitz is the only author in recent years to have been invited by Ian Fleming Publications to write successive, official James Bond novels. The collaboration began in 2015 with Trigger Mortis (Orion), followed by Forever and a Day in 2018 (Vintage). He followed in the footsteps of William Boyd’s Solo (Vintage) in 2013, the American thriller writer Jeffery Deaver, with Carte Blanche (Hodder) in 2011, and Sebastian Faulks, whose Devil May Care (Penguin) was published to mark Ian Fleming’s centenary in 2008.   

Last month, it was revealed Kim Sherwood has become the first woman to write a 007 book in a deal with HarperCollins.