Title: Trigger Mortis
Author(s) Name(s): Anthony Horowitz
Published in: September, 2015
Why You Might Like This Book: Read this book if you enjoy
- James Bond stories,
- spy fiction,
- historical fiction,
- geopolitical thrillers,
- fast-paced action,
- international crime fighting,
- high-stakes plots,
- fighting terror,
- classic heroes,
- hypermasculinity,
- British crime fiction,
- high-risk sports,
- advanced technology used by criminals and the authorities to prevent crime, and
- Grand Prix and motor car racing.
Who Should Avoid This Book: Avoid this book if you are triggered by or dislike
- violence,
- extremism,
- life threats,
- scandals,
- war,
- misuse of weapons,
- ruthless criminal characters,
- murder,
- terror attacks, or
- grief and loss.
Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz is a historical, spy thriller crime novel featuring Ian Fleming’s iconic James Bond as the lead character. The story begins on a serious, dark note with the introduction of a fifty-four-year-old German physicist-engineer Thomas Keller, who works for the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and lives in the USA with his American wife Gloria. His obsession with rockets, as he lived through world war, enjoying his work with advanced, high-powered, and high-speed rockets had made him emotionally indifferent to the consequences and the loss of lives that these rockets could cause. He drives to meet a stranger in his thirties at a remote diner, a man whom he knows only as Harry Johnson, which might not be his real name, this being their fourth meeting. Keller has been looking forward to this meeting with Harry because the first time they had met, it was not accidental; after meeting a few more times, Harry had made a proposal – if Harry could secretly sabotage the Vanguard space rocket, which he has access to at work, and ensure that it shall fail, Harry’s team will pay him $250, 000 in cash. He had become instantly excited, his wife had approved of the idea, too, so he had done as he was asked, so this is his day to collect the money for his work. After a brief talk, Harry tells him where in the diner he has left the money. Keller warns him that what he had just done for them is no joke, it is a crime of very high order, so if they wanted to kill Keller to cover up their crime, they can’t get away with it. But the stranger denies that they are evil gangsters who may want him dead, assures him that there is money in the suitcase, and leaves the place. Later, Keller is killed.
The stage for suspense is set, and in a different part of the world, Bond has yet another normal day. He wakes up in his bed in his luxurious home with a woman next to him in bed – the woman in question being Pussy Galore. She had accompanied him to England and he let her stay with him because he enjoyed her company and she was convinced that staying back in the USA after what had happened might get her killed. Bond lies to his team that he has her staying with him because she would be of help to them, he is attracted to her, but is also starting to regret having her. But when he finds out that a couple of men are following her, he wants to protect her. That’s when he gets assigned to his next task by M – they have received information that in the upcoming car racing event, the Nürburgring Grand Prix, the best car racer of their country, Lancy Smith might get killed by another driver Ivan Dimitrov from the SMERSH, so given that Bond himself has been a car racer hobbyist, it would be his job to go there and protect the sportsman, joining the race himself, with the help of a trainer named Logan Fairfax whom they have recruited.
As Bond travels to meet Logan, another pretty, attractive woman, the daughter of a former car-racing champion, he learns the many details and risks of racing in Nürburgring. She does not know his real identity or what he is actually there for, assuming that he is just a policeman wanting to enjoy this sport, so she ironically contacts and seeks help from Lancy Smith to keep an eye out for protecting Bond. As he gain some practice and gets close to Logan, suddenly, there is an unexpected event – he sees Pussy Galore at his hotel, and she is kidnapped by the same two men who had been following her. She almost gets killed, but Bond intervenes in the alst minute to save her, with Logan’s help. Finally, with only a few more days left to go, Bond travels to Nürburg to meet Lancy Smith, who happens to be a harmless, nice, humble man in his late twenties, unaware of what is planned against him; this is the man Bond is supposed to protect. Lancy takes him for a few drives on the track and explains what Bond must be aware of – driving on this track in this race could be highly dangerous even for trained professionals. He is given an almost perfect Maserati 250F with all the things a spy would need in place, but is he experienced enough to handle a merciless motor-racing event like this, where the event itself is dangerous, and to add to that, there are members of the SMERSH who plan to violently sabotage the event? The last time an accident happened, nearly eighty-three people were killed.
But how does all this tie to the rockets and who are the people who want some rockets to malfunction and fail? What is their plan? The suspense remains, exactly like you would expect in any 007 story. The very opening itself is intriguing; a high-stakes, international, geopolitical crime situation has been neatly set before the arrival of the heroic male lead. Its fast-paced, no-nonsense style resembles every James Bond story you have read or watched – sexy and seducing from the get-go! High-risk sports and adventure: check, breaking the rules set by M and the department: check, sexy female characters who work in traditionally masculine fields or in criminal circles: check, who also fall for the main lead: check, plots that run deeper than what meets the eye: check, normalized misogyny, sexism, and objectification of women: check, plot twists that amp up the danger: check, thus the book comes with all the markings of a classic James Bond novel, one that would feed the raw fantasies of fans of the hypermasculine man.
Not one paragraph feels like an unnecessary drawl; there is one strange event or another happening all the time, one threat or another looming everywhere in the story. Suddenly, Pussy is almost killed, he needs to protect Lancy, and there might be far bigger threats that Bond would have to face. You don’t know how many criminal gangs are involved; you don’t know what is the motive and who really is the target. But you know for sure that whatever it is, Bond will defeat them and come out alive, like the spy hero he always has been. The suspense, the quick action, the sinister plots, the book definitely provides all the adrenaline rush an action thriller fan would crave. Anthony Horowitz has doubtlessly done justice to the character 007, bringing the 20th century fictional heroic figure back to life, leaving fans satisfied. Let this classic-style fast-paced action spy thriller add some adventure to your weekend! I’d give this a 4.7-star rating.
