Shoot to Kill

Reviewed on 2nd December 2014

A new Young Bond novel that I didn't even find out about until the day after publication - not sure if that's a black mark for the marketing department (not sure I'm target audience) or Amazon's recommendations (which should definitely know I'm a Bond fan).

The story takes place following the end of the series written by Charlie Higson (which covered Bond's time at Eton) but before he starts at his next school, Fettes - which allows the author to have some fun and take Bond away from home much in the style of many of the original Fleming novels.

Despite the setting in the earlier half of the twentieth century, Coles has managed to craft a really exciting story that doesn't feel dated to a (admittedly slightly old) reader in the twenty-first. It's full of the technology, peril, adventure, glamour and action that's expected of James Bond, and while there are tiny hints of things to come, it skips some of the aspects of the original character that might not work in a book aimed at younger readers.

An exciting, superbly paced, richly detailed story about one of my favourite characters that really hints, perhaps more so than Higson even, at the man Bond will become.