Before I start this review, I should confess that I am not a fan of Bond, he is not my cup of tea. The reason I mention this is that some readers may think that Quantum of Menace, written by Vaseem Khan, may not be for them. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Bond is still alive and well, you will be reassured to know. Blowing things up, and bedding women with great enthusiasm and aplomb, but not in this book. This is not Bond, this is the Bond adjacent world, where Q takes centre stage.

Q has taken early retirement from MI6, allegedly by mutual consent, though he felt it was rather more of an enforced changing of the guard. He is brought back to his childhood home of Wickstone-on-Water, by an encrypted letter from his friend Peter Napier. It was written on the day Peter died, which seems too much of a coincidence for Q, despite the local police finding nothing amiss.

I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, two of the names brought a smile to my face whenever they were mentioned. I will let you work out which ones for yourself. The book was well written, and kept me engaged as the chapters flew by. The audiobook is ably narrated by Alexander Armstrong. I think his voice is perfectly pitched, especially for Q and Mort.

The humour is dry, and generously scattered through the pages. I could feel the amused arched eyebrow on Vaseem’s face as he wrote, and Alexander’s smile as he voiced the wry witty words. I enjoyed the nods to Bond, some of which were tongue in cheek, all were written with great affection to Fleming’s hero.

Quantum of Menace is a hugely enjoyable and entertaining read, at the gentler end of the scale. It is a book that will appeal to many readers, I will be gifting it to my Dad as I know he will enjoy it too. There appears to be scope for a second book in the series. I will keep my fingers crossed, as I would love to return to Wickstone.

When Major Boothroyd, better known by the single letter Q, receives a cryptic note from an old friend who has recently died. So he decides to go back to his hometown of Wickstone-on-Water in hopes of solving the mystery.
Q is no longer working for MI6 and is a bit out of his depth, also he is getting no help from the local police. But he is determined to get answers, so he starts to think more like his former colleagues the 00’s, in the search for the truth.
His friend Peter Napier was a scientist in the field of quantum computing and it appears he was also involved with some very shady characters. As Q starts to untangle the mystery it appears he may have put himself in danger. Can he solve the question being asked of him, whilst keeping himself alive?
This novel is a breath of fresh air in the field of espionage. It is cryptic, intense and very funny. From start to finish it’s an absolute delight to listen to.
Narrated by the wonderful Alexander Armstrong.
He does an incredible job of bringing Vaseem Khan’s story to life.
This a perfect combination of two people coming together to create a wonderful audiobook.
I loved this book and highly recommend it.
Thanks to Bonnier UK Audio for the opportunity to review this marvellous story.

Vaseem Khan's distinctive style and humour perfectly complement the tongue-in-cheek manner of the Bond universe whilst also keeping you on your toes with excellently crafted plots.

You'll be smirking all the way through, as you picture in your own mind Q's thoughts and feelings and race like a juggernaut through the chapters to enjoy the story, before beginning to await another installment.

Alexander Armstrong did an amazing job, thoroughly suited to the role of audiobook narrator.