Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz Narrator: Matthew Goode
Series: James Bond - Extended Series #48, Horowitz Bond #2
Published by Harper Audio on November 6, 2018
Source: Library
Genres: Adventure, Spy Thriller
Length: 7 hrs 36 mins
Pages: 290
Format: Audiobook
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A spy is dead. A legend is born.
A British agent floats in the waters of the French Riviera, murdered by an unknown hand.
Determined to uncover the truth, James Bond enters a world of fast cars, grand casinos and luxury yachts. But beneath the glamour, he soon encounters a dangerous network of organised crime.
It’s time for Bond to earn his licence to kill. He must find those responsible and unravel their devastating plan – before he becomes their next victim…
The exhilarating prequel to Casino Royale
I like Horowitz. I enjoy James Bond. Apparently the two put together are annoying. It’s the early ‘50s and British intelligence is worried about unusual activity in Marseille’s underworld so they send one of their elite agents to check it out, but 007 is murdered. His replacement? A young man named Bond. James Bond.
And it is a stereotypical Bond story. We have a beautiful, intelligent woman and the bad guy is appropriately evil and easy to describe. We have food, drinks, cars, gambling, and plenty of violence. Maybe that’s what had me rolling my eyes. It was predictable. The plot does move along quickly and if you’re looking for a James Bond story, it is definitely that. Maybe that’s just not what I was in the mood for.
About Anthony Horowitz
Anthony John Horowitz, CBE (born 5 April 1955) is an English novelist and screenwriter specializing in mystery and suspense. Anthony has written over 50 books including the bestselling teen spy series Alex Rider, which is estimated to have sold 21 million copies worldwide and has been turned into a hugely successful TV series by Amazon Freevee.
Anthony is also an acclaimed writer for adults and was commissioned to write two new Sherlock Holmes novels The House of Silk and Moriarty. He was commissioned by the Ian Fleming Estate to write continuation novels for James Bond with Trigger Mortis and Forever and Day, published in 2015 and 2018 respectively. A third novel in the series With a Mind to Kill was published in May 2022.
Anthony’s award-winning novel Magpie Murders was published in October 2016 to critical acclaim and was serialised on BritBox at the beginning of 2022 with Lesley Manville in the lead role. It will be televised on the BBC in 2023. The sequel, Moonflower Murders, will begin filming in September 2023. His new series featuring Detective Hawthorne and a sidekick called Anthony Horowitz has four books so far: The Word is Murder, The Sentence is Death, A Line to Kill and the recently published The Twist of a Knife. Anthony has just started work on a fifth: Close to Death.
Horowitz has also written for television, contributing scripts to ITV’s Agatha Christie’s Poirot and adapting six early episodes of Midsomer Murders from the novels of Caroline Graham, including the first three episodes. He was the creator and writer of the ITV series Foyle’s War, Collision and Injustice, and the BBC series Crime Traveller and New Blood.
In 2019 Anthony became a Patron to Home-Start in Suffolk, a small local family support charity working with families across the Suffolk county, as they navigate through challenging circumstances such as mental health issues, bereavement, long term or terminal illness, isolation, domestic abuse, poverty and so much more.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
I am not a James Bond fan but I do like Anthony Horowitz (I have seen a few interviews and he seems very charming, in addition to his clever books and television).
However, I like Matthew Goode more than either of them! How was the narration? I didn’t know he had done any audiobooks. I do not think I have ever picked a book on its narrator but I did once look up Scott Brick to see what else he had done, so I guess I came close.
His narration was fine – it fit the tone of the book well. He didn’t strike me as outstanding though. Of course, I didn’t actually know who he was and had to look him up after you commented.