James Bond is back, in the form of a new book, Solo.
The estate of 007’s original creator, Ian Fleming, approved William Boyd to pen the novel, which was launched with great fanfare at the Dorchester Hotel in London on Wednesday and is set to hit British bookstores Thursday (and American bookstores on Oct. 8).
Boyd said he hoped to revive Fleming’s originally complex and conflicted spy in his first Bond novel. “Bond has a dark side. He’s troubled. … And he makes mistakes. That’s what’s so interesting about him,” he told the Associated Press. The book is set in Africa in 1969 and includes a love interest (though Boyd is not partial to the term “bond girl”).
007 fans will also be happy to hear that Bond sips dry martinis throughout the novel… shaken, not stirred.
[AP]