James Bond is returning to bookstore shelves next year—that is, if his fellow spies can find him.
Author Kim Sherwood announced on Instagram that A Spy Like Me, her latest novel set in the Bond universe, will be published next year by HarperCollins. It’s the second installment in her Double O series, which debuted in April with Double or Nothing. A critic for Kirkus was not a fan of that novel, writing about it, “This kickoff to a new trilogy is a florid update to the Double O canon that desperately wishes it were a movie.”
Double or Nothing followed a group of MI6 agents embarking on a series of dangerous missions after James Bond has been kidnapped by a private military company. In A Spy Like Me, the agents find themselves getting closer to rescuing Bond while on the trail of terrorists.
Sherwood is the first woman author to write novels featuring Bond, the character originally created by Ian Fleming. She has a family connection to the martini-drinking spy: Her grandfather George Baker acted in three James Bond movies, including On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and The Spy Who Loved Me.
“After a lifetime of waiting to hear the next Bond movie title and spending countless hours dissecting what it might mean, it’s surreal & super fun to be here,” Sherwood wrote on Instagram. “Thank you so much to the whole Bond community and thriller readers who’ve followed on the journey so far, it means the world to me. I’m thrilled to share this next chapter with you.”
A Spy Like Me is scheduled for publication on April 25, 2024.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
