***THE NO. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER***
A spy is dead. A legend is born. This is how it all began. The explosive prequel to Casino Royale, from bestselling author Anthony Horowitz.
M laid down his pipe and stared at it tetchily. 'We have no choice. We're just going to bring forward this other chap you've been preparing. But you didn't tell me his name.'
'It's Bond, sir,' the Chief of Staff replied. 'James Bond.'
The sea keeps its secrets. But not this time.
One body. Three bullets. 007 floats in the waters of Marseille, killed by an unknown hand.
It's time for a new agent to step up. Time for a new weapon in the war against organised crime.
It's time for James Bond to earn his licence to kill.
This is the story of the birth of a legend, in the brutal underworld of the French Riviera.
--
'Ian Fleming would be proud.' Guardian
'A novel that feels very like a film... fast-paced, skillfully written... leaves you wanting more, and for serious Bond junkies is the next fix in a long tale of addiction.' The Times
Author Biography
Anthony Horowitz is one of the most prolific and successful writers working in the UK. He has written more than forty books, including his 2016 stand-alone novel Magpie Murders, a Sunday Times bestseller, and 2017's The Word is Murder, the first in a series of crime novels starring Detective Daniel Hawthorne.
He is the author of two Sherlock Holmes novels -- The House of Silk and Moriarty -- and one previous James Bond novel, Trigger Mortis. His teen spy Alex Rider books have sold 19 million copies worldwide, and he is also responsible for creating and writing some of the UK's most-loved TV series, including Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War.
He is on the board of the Old Vic Theatre and was awarded an OBE for his services to literature in January 2014.
