Antony Horowitz is one of my favourite authors, so it was a no-brainer to pick this up in Smiths at Buchanan Street Bus Station the other day. It's AH's third (and apparently last) Bond novel.
   I enjoyed it, but a couple of things did niggle me. First, Bond kept failing at all sorts of things and didn't do enough 007ish stuff to satisfy me. The book's not devoid of action, I hasten to add, but he doesn't often actually win. When the baddie finally gets his comeuppance towards the end, I find the situation rather unlikely in that it relies on Bond being able to see... well, I won't say what. No spoilers here.
   The second niggle is that there is an awful lot of descriptive detail. It's all based in the past, so all the detail is different to what it might be now. I don't have an issue with that, but there just seems so much of it that I, perhaps unfairly, wondered if AH is setting the scene for a future film.
   But don't let my niggles put you off. It's a nice, straightforward Bond story without a lot of flummery. And only one typo that I spotted. To find out what that is, you'll have to click on the EDITORIAL button over to the right, and then on 'errata'.