This is the start of a new trilogy based on the James Bond novels. Unlike the Anthony Horowitz novel which I read earlier this year, this is more of a spin off series, rather than a continuation of the Bond novels. , Bond isn’t actually present in this novel but, he is constantly referenced. He has gone missing and the focus is now on 3 newer MI6 agents Johanna Harwood 003, Joseph Dryden 004 and Sid Bashir 009. I can’t help thinking about the film franchise and how there’s constant speculation about who should play Bond next – should they be a POC, should they be female etc. They’d do well to learn from this and have Bond being Bond and introducing new characters which break from the white male stereotype.

Some of the characters – M, Q, Moneypenny and Felix, who we’ve come to know and love over the years are still around, although, not in exactly the same format as in previous years/books.

The opening of this book got straight into the action, introducing new characters and setting us up for the rest of the novel. There are times when it isn’t as fast paced as I’d have liked but we have twists and turns throughout and the focus on climate change makes this a very modern version of a classic ser

A James Bond book where the hero is missing, possibly dead, appealed to me greatly, but sadly I found it not particularly easy to read and very difficult to get into. I'm sure it will be very popular, but not for me I'm afraid.

It's Bond without Bond. Great new Characters introduced. Engaging and thrilling storyline. Looking forward to the next one.

A different take on the 007 stories. 007 himself is in the background for a lot of this book with other 00s taking the main story. It was a cleverly put together plot but unfortunately I struggled to keep up some of the time and found it confusing. I did manage to finish the book but not a favourite.

I’m a huge 007 fan so was curious to read this. It’s my first in the collection of different authors taking the world’s most famous spy story forward. Overall I found it to be a refreshing take on the Bond narrative. I found it a bit difficult to keep up with so many different characters but didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment.

I dont know if the name of the book put me off or i just couldnt get in to it.

Just didnt seem it gripped me.

Absolutely loved this book, which I was sent in exchange for an honest review.

Excellent thriller concentrating on the 00 agents, including 007. Very interesting and moved very fast. I would have loved the *very* end to have been brighter and more hopeful. However, I would highly recommend this book.

Thusbis a great premise for a book but I must admit I struggled to get into the story. There were so many characters that were referred to by their names and their 00 numbers interchangeably it was sometimes hard to keep track. The story was complex and interesting and worth stocking with.

Growing up, 007 films were my favourite, so when I was gifted an e-arc of this book I couldn’t say no.

The plot is nothing but simple and we see different POVs as we follow the stories of each 00. You should expect intrigue, suspense and loads of action. I really liked the plot as it is well structured and the detailed descriptions are giving a cinematic feel. The twists in the story are all very good!

What I didn’t like is that the book contains all this info about spies, espionage, army specifics and politics but doesn’t really explain to the reader to fully grasp the idea and the background of the plot. This put me off a bit tbh, as I had to Google army terms and abbreviations every once in a while and after a point I gave up.

Overall, I think the book is satisfyingly good and is living up to the standard. If you’re a fan of spy action books, this is totally for you.

As a big fan of the Bond films, I was excited to try this even though I have never read a Bond book. It wasn’t for me and I DNFd it mainly because there were too many characters to keep track of and it was confusing. Maybe this just isn’t my genre. Thanks to the publisher and author for an advanced review copy, but this was a ‘miss’ for me and I won’t continue with the series.

I love Bond and despite the ridiculously far fetched plots and escapades, like so many of us, I really enjoy the films. I was therefore excited to try out a new spin on the spy thriller idea and indeed this book has all the makings of a good tale. It is undoubtable that the author had a plan and could see the story unfold in their own mind but somehow this did not quite come over in the writing. Whether this be the style, lack of experience or we just never got the whole picture as readers, I'm not sure. In general the writing could be improved with less descriptive passages and the understanding and following the story by reducing the number of characters; perhaps removing those with lesser roles. A great idea but overall missed the mark to make it great.

"Double or Nothing" is a James Bond book without much James Bond. But oddly, I'd argue too much Bond. What kind of nonsense does that mean? Well, Bond is missing, so instead, we focus on the greater Bond Universe, which is pretty good. It would standalone as a great political action thriller. But, by still being in the world of Bond there remains an elephant-shaped hole in the room which makes the whole thing feel somewhat like a spin-off, one that has that slight sense of being not quite confident enough to eschew its roots.

A big part of that sense comes from the fact that Bond's disappearance is more of a sub-plot. A thread to weave some legitimacy into the main plot. So, what is the book really about? It's about a tech billionaire solving climate change. Which doesn't sound very punchy in that one-line summary but it actually is. Sir Bertram Paradise makes Elon Musk seem modest and Jeff Bezos a small-thinker. You probably wouldn't want to know him, but he's the kind of billionaire who can fill newspaper columns with stories that convince you that money can't buy sanity, and so we can accept being poorer because trips to rocket launch sites really sound like a waste of time even for people who can afford to taste that much money.

Which is why we have 00 agents trying to get close to him as they also try to find out why a leading member of his staff appears to have vanished. There are missions across the globe as our array of agents get to work. And it is a big spy game so of course, we have to ask who can be trusted more times than all but the most obsessed would ever count. And it's a really rather good story. The car chases are written a little too like a jaded car journalist trying to liven up a review, people who will care about a car's torque probably know enough about cars to not need numbers and explanations, but the political thriller of that story is multifaceted and engaging. The world of MI6 beyond Bond has many possibilities. and this book really does show the potential to carry over some of the familiar aspects, such as Q Branch, and not rely on Bond for a story.

And Bond himself is only a relatively fleeting involvement. Which is good for getting the other positives shine through. And, as I said, a weird reminder that you're reading a Bond story without much Bond at all. Which makes this book something like a veggie burger - they're delicious vegetable patties that satisfy your hunger wonderfully. But if someone kept flashing a photo of a juicy beefburger in front of you while you ate it you can easily find yourself craving the one thing missing.

In fairness, I don't see any other real approach to dealing with the Bond aspect. It's trying to tell a story that requires only glimpses of the main reason you'd pick this book up which is far from easy, and to be honest, unlikely to really achieve it perfectly for more than a few people. The rest of us? We get a good story. It's enjoyable even if it's not quite what we're looking for. But it also tells you that the series is worthy of your time. The arc of expanding this universe is on solid ground already and will mature as it builds. So who knew? Bond is actually optional in Bond stories.

A new spin on a James Bond book that, well, takes James Bond out of the book almost entirely. Instead, we focus on a new generation of 00 agents, guided by an old guard of returning characters. It's all very Star Wars.

And this book, like its protagonists, has a mission, to widen the window of who gets to be a superspy and what issues these books should consider. Our three heroes all break the great white hero mould in one way or several (gender, sexuality, race, ability, background) and the book considers the forms and manners of violence that were likely invisible or under-considered by previous generations of authors.

Its laudable and succeeds in making these books modern, relevant and different from what's gone before. Ironically, it does much more to that end than the simple act of removing James Bond does – we've all read or watched plenty of thrillers are just Bond without Bond.

The villain is more recognisable: a Moore-era megalomaniac for the era of climate crisis and disaster capitalism. I mean it as a compliment when I say he could have stepped out of an Alex Rider novel.

Ironically, some of the book's highlights are those moments when it pauses to look back on Bond himself, and his place in the modern world. Self-reflexivity is almost the default for James Bond these days (and he was always a reflective sort – a poet even, as someone here notes), but Sherwood utilises those concerns about the character (his bravado, his loneliness, his position as a champion of a lost empire) in the construction of a real mystery around his disappearance.

Double or Nothing isn't a perfect book, though, and my four stars are really rounded up by 3.5. Those interweaving narratives are not always as gripping as each other and parts of the conclusion feel hurried. There were times I was willing the pages to flip by faster so I could get back to the good stuff and others when I was sure I must have missed a couple so quickly had events moved on.

Recommended if you want a new and different take on Bond, while still getting your action and intrigue slickly delivered.

With an intriguing plot, I thought I'd love this one. But it was difficult to get into after the initial first scenes and there was a lot of description that I ended up skimming through. With the famous 007 missing, and plenty of other 00s on the scene - 003, 004, 008, 009 - the amount of characters were hard to keep up with.

Unfortunately, Double or Nothing by Kim Sherwood wasn't for me.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

I got this book sent to me and I thought it would be something I would enjoy, however it wasn’t my sort of book. I’m not a huge fan of this type of spy thriller, but it was a good book.

This is unputdownable! If you have plans, cancel them and expect a few late nights. A really gripping read. Well written, intriguing, full of twists and turns and very enjoyable!
The author has managed to keep all the best elements of a great Bond book and added a few of her own. The characters are vivid, well drawn and plausible. Your heart races with theirs as they fearlessly follow danger in their pursuit of justice and of Bond.
I would strongly recommend this book to fans of Ian Fleming but, perhaps more importantly, I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a carefully crafted, clever and thrilling story.

James Bond is missing. Agents are charged with discovering his whereabouts and status. Ian Fleming stalwarts from previous best sellers are resurrected to aid and support new agents operating with a license to kill. A storyline with rounded characters and good pace moving between past and present to allow the reader a knowledge of the background of protagonists with a current version of past much loved spy stories. Big questions shape the first of this trilogy, Seamlessly introducing a potential mole in the network, militia, guns, hair raising exciting chases with the ever present sprinkling of romantic stardust, all features of previous Bond books but with added subtle twists. Every credit to author for attempting with such success to produce a valiant, modern take on a previous hugely successful series by a renowned author , whilst confident in the ability to produce a trilogy to satisfy a new generation of Bond fans. Many thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

‘James Bond Is Missing And Time Is Running Out…’- cover tag line.

My thanks to HarperCollins U.K. for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Double or Nothing’ by Kim Sherwood.

This is the first in a new official trilogy that expands on the Bond universe. The premise is that James Bond, Agent 007, is missing. His current whereabouts are unknown and there is concern that he may have been killed by a sinister private military company.

We are introduced to a new generation of spies representing MI6’s best and brightest. They are Johanna Harwood (003), Joseph Dryden (004), and Sid Bashir (009). The familiar figure of Miss Moneypenny is now Chief of the Double 0 Section and the narrative is peppered with familiar characters as well as references from the original books.

The main plot focuses on Tech billionaire Sir Bertram Paradise, who claims that he can reverse the climate crisis and save the planet. The new spies are tasked with finding out if there is any truth to this. At the same time, M and Moneypenny are searching for a mole in MI6.

The narrative perspective moves between the various characters and there was plenty of action and the kind of twists common to spy thrillers.

Kim Sherwood is a life long fan of James Bond and in her Acknowledgements expressed her delight to have been chosen by the Fleming family to write this new addition to the extended Bond series.

While I tend prefer my spy fiction a little more cerebral, I found ‘Double or Nothing’ an engaging and entertaining spy thriller and am looking forward to Book 2.

This is an interesting take on the Bond stories, however, I found it difficult to follow the authors descriptions of action scenes in particular. The story moved along nicely but had periods of distraction which made made the flow difficult.

Kim Sherwood is given the world of Bond but this is not a standard Bond tale. Other double 0 agents take centre stage and there are all the ingredients of a classic Bond story - gadgets, multiple countries, danger, shadowy orgainsations hellbent on chaos etc.

The story is, apparently, the first one of three and I look forward to future instalments. Given that Bond is so well known Sherwood does an impressive job of givin the other double 0 agents personalities and backstories while pushing the plot along at a cracking pace.

If you love Bond or spy stories then you will probably love this, I did 5/5.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC