I was previously unaware of The Moneypenny Diaries which is a short book series that tells James Bond adventures from the perspective of Miss Moneypenny (did anyone know her first name is apparently “Jane”?).
It doesn't seem like the series got too far, but there some short stories published in British magazine. One of them is entitled For Your Eyes Only, James which sounds vaguely like Bond and Moneypenny might have consummated their flirtation.
(I did some looking, but that particular installment seems to be hard to find. Several people are trying to find reprints of it.)
I read the James Bond novel Seafire while on a business trip. This is from 1994, which is late in the John Gardner era — he only wrote one more original Bond novel after this one.
It was…okay. I've never loved Gardner's work. Here’s my review.
The NY Times released The Top 50 Thrillers of the 21st Century. Slow Horses is #9. I enjoyed that — here’s my review from a few years back.
Goldfinger as a Heist Novel
British author Jeffrey Archer supplied recommendations for “The Best Heist and Con Artist Books” novels over on Five Books named Goldfinger as the best heist novel. I find this interesting because, while the film version is wildly popular, I thought the novel was weaker.
(Speaking of Jeffrey Archer, I loved his novel “The Fourth Estate.”)
The Trap is the third installment of the Emma Makepeace series. It was fun and lightweight, like the first two — here’s my review. I did notice that the author has since written a novel outside that series, which I hope doesn’t mean she’s abandoned it.