Nobody Lives For Ever

The story, without spoilers

Bond is meant to be on leave, but the dying SPECTRE leader Tamil Rahani puts a price on his head. Assassins turn his European journey into a hunt. May, Bond's housekeeper, and Moneypenny are also at risk, making escape alone an inadequate solution.

The threat is unusually direct: Bond himself is the target. The story's pursuit follows from Gardner's previous SPECTRE adventure, so the apparent holiday sits inside a continuing rivalry rather than beginning with a wholly unfamiliar enemy.

Can I start here?

Read Role of Honour before this one. Rahani's revenge grows out of the previous adventure, and that connection is more useful than trying to treat the European chase as an isolated holiday gone wrong.

What stands out

The reversal from hunter to hunted is the appeal. May and Moneypenny draw the danger into Bond's personal circle, giving readers of the earlier novels another reason to follow the chase.

Who wrote it

Gardner had created the comic spy Boysie Oakes before the Fleming estate invited him to bring Bond into the 1980s; he later wrote Nobody Lives For Ever. His run contains fourteen original novels and two film adaptations.

Where it fits in Bond’s life

Nobody Lives For Ever is Gardner’s original Bond novel 5 of fourteen. In Nobody Lives For Ever, Gardner’s updated Bond operates after the original Fleming era. No precise neighbouring Fleming mission is given.

Content notes

Adult readers. Assassination attempts, kidnapping, killings and threats to familiar characters.

Setting

• Continental Europe

Main characters

James Bond, Tamil Rahani, May, Miss Moneypenny.