New novel 'Becoming James Bond' to be published next year

A new novel featuring James Bond creator Ian Fleming as the central character is coming soon. Riverhead Books (a division of Penguin USA) will release 'Becoming James Bond' by author Francine Mathews in 2014.

Weary of his deskbound status as a Chocolate Sailor in naval intelligence, Ian Fleming scribbles fiction while he plans the details of yet another conference between Churchill and Roosevelt in November, 1943—only this time, the stakes are high and the game plan perilous. Stalin is joining his Allies in Teheran to plan the critical invasion of Europe, Operation Overlord. Tipped off that Hitler’s top assassin has infiltrated the conference, Fleming seizes his chance to go undercover and stop a Nazi killer before he assassinates the Big Three. Joined by a beautiful SMERSH spy, Fleming is forced to accept that betrayal sometimes comes from the most unexpected quarters—and that one’s enemies are rarely as deadly as one’s friends…

The spy genre is not new to Mathews, who published 'Jack 1939' last year (also released by Riverhead), which follows a young Jack Kennedy through Europe as Hitler mobilizes to invade Poland. The Financial Times was among the many media outlets praising the book, describing it as "a rollicking adventure story” with “a plot straight out of a John Buchan novel."

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