It’s not often you have a book endorsed by Mick Herron, Ann Cleeves, Lee Child, Mark Billingham, Janice Hallett and Charlie Higson (among others) before it has even been published, but that is the (very fortunate) situation with my latest novel, Quantum of Menace, which came out in the UK on Oct 23rd. You can find buy links here: https://geni.us/quantumofmenace
The book is the first in a mystery series featuring Q from the Bond franchise. In Quantum of Menace, Q – aka Major Boothroyd – finds himself unceremoniously booted out of MI6. At odds with the future, he decides to return to his hometown to investigate the mysterious death of his childhood friend, Peter Napier, a quantum computer scientist who had been on the verge of a major breakthrough. This homecoming is fraught with tension. We get to meet Q’s estranged father – Mortimer Boothroyd – a surly, retired ancient Roman historian, and his even more estranged childhood fiancé, now the detective in charge of the original investigation into Napier’s death.
This isn’t a Bond-style spy thriller, but a traditional mystery with the tone somewhere between Mick Herron’s Slow Horses and Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club. If you liked those books, you will like this. There’s dry humour, cryptic clues, an insight into Q’s life at – and post – MI6, and, yes, Commander Bond puts in an appearance. How could he not!
The book – written at the invitation of the Ian Fleming estate – is entirely my own creation, albeit using characters that millions will be familiar with. The (fictional) small town setting – Wickstone-on-Water – is the sort of once sleepy place that often appears in cosy crime, but with a distinctly edgy vibe: a few thousand people whose halcyon view of the world is being tested by change.
I confess I’ve always had a soft spot for Q. He never appeared much in the books – almost everything we know about him comes from the films. But I always believed him to be a serious man, a scientist who takes himself – and his mission – helping safeguard the civilised world – as a sacred trust. That’s the Q I have brought to life. A real man with a complex back story.
For me, the dilemma was simple: how do I combine what we love about the Bond canon – for instance, the prickly relationship between Bond and Q – with everything a sophisticated cosy audience has come to expect? i.e. wit, quirky personas and an emphasis on the puzzle rather than say rocket launchers fired from the tops of speeding trains?
The result is Quantum of Menace. The book is gathering a life of its own. I do hope you give it a go!
NOTE: The book received star reviews in most of the national newspapers in the UK and has ended up on many end-of-year best crime and thriller lists – it would make a perfect Christmas gift. Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!
Vaseem Khan 