Double or Nothing

The story, without spoilers

James Bond is missing and presumed dead. Moneypenny's Double O agents Sid Bashir, Johanna Harwood and Joseph Dryden are sent to infiltrate Rattenfänger and investigate its connection to billionaire Bertram Paradise. The service has to confront the threat without its most famous operative.

Sherwood begins a new team-led trilogy rather than giving Bond another solo assignment. Readers meet a wider Double O section, and the absent 007 becomes a continuing question around the agents' own dangerous work.

Can I start here?

Yes. This is the first Double O novel and the required start for Sherwood's trilogy. You can know Bond from Fleming without having read other continuation authors, but do not begin with the later two books.

What stands out

Bond's absence changes the focus to a group of agents and Moneypenny's role around them. Choose this if you want the literary universe to expand beyond one man while retaining the Double O institution.

Who wrote it

Sherwood, a novelist and creative-writing lecturer, was commissioned to expand the Double O world in the trilogy that includes Double or Nothing. Her grandfather George Baker appeared in the Bond films.

Where it fits in Bond’s life

Double or Nothing is part of a contemporary Double O trilogy about the wider service. Bond’s absence drives the ensemble story; these books are not inserted into Fleming’s original chronology.

Content notes

Adult readers. Terrorism, threats to agents, violence and an adult contemporary espionage setting.

Setting

• The contemporary Double O intelligence world

Main characters

Sid Bashir, Johanna Harwood, Joseph Dryden, Moneypenny, Sir Bertram Paradise.