Two decades ago, the producers of the James Bond movies hired legendary crime novelist Donald E. Westlake to come up with a story for the next Bond film. The plot Westlake dreamed up – about a Western businessman seeking revenge after being kicked out of Hong Kong when the island was returned to Chinese rule – had all the elements of a classic Bond adventure, but political concerns kept it from being made. Never one to let a good story go to waste, Westlake wrote an original novel based on the premise instead – a novel he never published while he was alive.
Now, nearly a decade after Westlake’s death, Hard Case Crime is proud to give that novel its first publication ever, together with a brand new afterword by one of the movie producers describing the project’s genesis, and to give fans their first taste of the Westlake-scripted Bond that might have been. Shamelessly escapist fun - Seattle Times
The orange wetsuit, that gun pose, the comma of hair above the eye - stop twisting my arm, Hard Case!” -  Birth. Movies. Death
unexpected treat...a posthumous bonus fans will cherish - Kirkus Reviews
“There are real Bond villains in this ever-changing world in which we live in.  But there is no James Bond.  It’s up to us to stop them.  Or join them.  Or be destroyed and/or ruled by them.  There are no other choices. -The Westlake Review
great fun to read...and speculate on what a Westlake-written Bond movie might have been like. A newly discovered novel by one of the true grand masters of the genre is always a cause for celebration. - Booklist
![Forever and a Death [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/6/6/3/2_1314270.jpg "Forever and a Death [Paperback]")