Quantum of Menace

Vaseem Khan

THE world of 007 has never lost its glamourous allure since Ian Fleming’s first book, Casino Royale, was published in 1953 and soon became the launch pad for one of the most sensational and lucrative success stories of the film industry.

In more recent times, a steady run of inventive James Bond spin-off books have thrilled both contemporary readers and die-hard fans. 

Some have focused on other characters within the Bond universe, such as Miss Moneypenny and the Double-0 section, and now Vaseem Khan (pictured below), author of two award-winning crime series set in India, has set his sights on the ingenious gadget wizard himself, Major Boothroyd (aka Q).

And hot off the presses is Quantum of Menace, first book of a quirky, clever and thoroughly entertaining new series published in partnership with the Fleming Estate and starring techno titan Q as you have never before seen him. Khan tells us that writing this fresh and fascinating Bond-fuelled series is ‘the greatest honour’ of his life but it came with challenges, not least the task of employing just the right tone for a character who has become as deeply embedded in the 007 stories as James Bond himself.

So it is pleasing to report that Khan has risen superbly to the challenge, bringing us a much more up-close-and-personal Q, a man who has lost his job at MI6 and is now operating in an increasingly fraught modern world… a place which reflects some of 21^st century life’s darkest corners but is leavened, in trademark form, by the Bond brand’s much-loved wit and satire.

We find Q at what, for him, is an extremely low ebb after being unexpectedly ousted from British Intelligence where his job as the Quartermaster involved developing technologies for MI6’s Double-O agents. His enforced redundancy from a highly specialised role at the ridiculously young age of 50 came from the new M, a woman with whom he had never got on and who turned out to be a ‘political animal for the brick-faced PM.’ It has left Q adrift and unsure of his place in a world where his time with MI6 is just a memory and where the stakes aren’t always life or death.

But the torpor of an unwanted early retirement ends abruptly when when he learns that his childhood friend, the renowned quantum computer scientist Peter Napier, has died in mysterious circumstances and Q is drawn back to the sleepy home village of Wickstone-on-Water where both men grew up.

Frustrated by the coroner’s ruling that Napier’s death by drowning in a local river was misadventure and the police decision to close the case, Q feels compelled to investigate, and even more so when he receives a message – containing the words ‘If you’re reading this, I’m dead’ accompanied by a complex cipher – sent to him by Napier on the day of his death.

And Q soon discovers that Napier’s secretive and ground-breaking work may have attracted sinister forces. Unable to prevent meeting up again with his estranged father Mort and his ex-girlfriend Kathy Burnham, who is now the local tough-as-nails DCI, Q will need help from old pal James Bond and a humanoid robot called Honeypenny (secreted out of MI6 before he left) if he is going to decode the truth and keep danger at bay.

Bond fans will relish this first outing with Q, a delicious feast of skulduggery, espionage and technological wizardry served up with a side helping of genuine emotional intensity, spine-tingling suspense, some likeable new faces, and welcome cameo appearances from forever favourites like Bond and Moneypenny. Khan puts ingenuity, dry humour and powerful psychological intensity into this gripping new addition to the Bond canon as the ever-inventive Q employs his top-secret field technology skills to investigate his friend’s suspicious death and follow a perilous twisting, turning path to justice.

Motored by the decidedly modern concept of next-generation quantum computing, but still wrapped up in the irresistible nostalgia, quirkiness and stylish authenticity of the Bond world, Quantum of Menace is buzzing with big personalities, compelling detective work, and an addictive get-up-and-go vibe. Perhaps more thoughtful, politically aware and emotionally wise than the original, this terrific new series with the inimitable Q at its heart will please both Bond and detective fiction fans. As Khan reminds us in his Author’s Note, ‘Bond is more than just a spy/unstoppable killing machine… he is a symbol of values that stand for a Britain many of us believe in.’

So fasten your seatbelts and prepare for action… Q might be out of MI6 but he’s definitely not out of the game!
(Zaffre, paperback, £9.99)