After the Man With the Golden Gun, Bond goes deep undercover behind the Iron Curtain. No joke, this reads like it was written by Ian Fleming himself. There are plot twists, reveals, and near misses as Bond navigates Leningrad, Moscow and East Berlin, a dystopian world where nothing is truly what it seems. The story is a suspenseful espionage thriller grounded in Cold War history — including a cameo by a very famous historical figure — with elements of The Manchurian Candidate and Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much. Anthony Horowitz does a great job of keeping up the mounting suspense as the story progresses at a rapid pace. His characters are plausible and there’s a lot of inner dialogue by Bond as he ruminates on his career and the meaning of it all even as he’s on yet another seemingly impossible assignment. Like Fleming, Horowitz uses his settings — like the bleak, oppressive Soviet-era Moscow — very effectively to build mood and atmosphere. A quick, fun read/listen for fans of the original Bond books, like me, and a satisfying coda to the Fleming series. In the audio version, Rory Kinnear, the actor who Bond movie fans (also me!) will recognize played Chief of Staff Bill Tanner during the Daniel Craig era, does a solid narration of the book. I can’t wait to read and listen to Horowitz’s other two Bond novels!