A spy is dead. A legend is born. This is how it all began.

The explosive prequel to Casino Royale, from bestselling author Anthony Horowitz, Forever and a Day is the story of the birth of a legend in the brutal underworld of the French Riviera that takes the reader to the very beginning of James Bond's illustrious career and the formation of his identity.

M laid down his pipe and stared at it tetchily.

...

Introducing James Bond: charming, sophisticated, handsome; chillingly ruthless and licensed to kill. This, the first of [the author's] tales of secret agent 007, finds Bond on a mission to neutralize a lethal, high-rolling Russian operative called simple "Le Chiffre"--by ruining him at the Baccarat table and forcing his Soviet spymasters to "retire" him. It seems that lady luck is taken with 007--Le Chiffre has hit a losing streak. But some people...

"It is M's funeral. One man is missing from the graveside: the traitor who pulled the trigger and who is now in custody, accused of M's murder--James Bond. Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former SMERSH agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is smuggled into the lion's den--but whose orders is he following, and will he obey them when the moment of truth arrives? In a mission where treachery...