With a Mind to Kill

 I’ve read another novel by Anthony Horowitz, an audiobook format narrated by the great Rory Kinnear. This story is a very clever James Bond novel, and I think it was probably Ian Fleming that first got me hooked on books about murder and espionage. When I was 11 or 12 years old, I devoured all of Fleming’s novels. I’ve seen all the movies more than once, starting with the second one, From Russia with Love, which debuted in 1963. I’ve not read a Fleming book since then, and what fun it has been to read Horowitz’s take on this master spy and assassin.

The novel is entitled With a Mind to Kill. Horowitz reviews the prior James Bond adventures and neatly fits his novel into that sequence. After being badly injured during his last assignment in Japan, Bond had mostly recovered. His director, “M” thought Bond was ready for a new assignment, and M thought that it was only Bond who could take on the next specific challenge. After faking M’s death at Bond’s hands, the hero was allowed to be captured by the Russians. There was a subset of powerful Russians who believed that Nitkita Khurshchev, the head of the country from the mid 1950’s to 1964, was too weak to lead the country in the direction that they wanted. They wanted the country to return to the terror of Stalin. It was the brainwashing of an expert in that technique that believed he could turn Bond into the assassin who could do that. The international balance of power was at stake.

Of course, there was a stunning woman, a psychiatrist who had been trained in that discipline from a distorted Russian perspective, who was sent to determine if the brainwashing of Bond had been complete. Predictably and delightfully, she fell in love with him.

There are many more details, but if you’re a Bond junkie like me, this review should draw you to the writing of Horowitz and narration of Kinnear. Just as the Fleming books were rather short, this is not a long book. It is, however, most satisfying.