NEWS

Posted on 2 September, 2026

Did you know that the most recent biographer of Ian Fleming, Nicholas Shakespeare, also writes a mean thriller? Welcome to September at the James Bond Book Club.

OVERVIEW

Ex-journalist John Dyer has settled into a quiet life when he receives news that his old university friend, Lia, has been murdered. Decades have passed since they last spoke, but the circumstances of her death draw Dyer into an investigation of his own.

His search takes him back forty years to the night when he and three friends witnessed a terrible crime – and to the evidence that was lost in its aftermath. Somewhere is a Leica camera containing the proof of what happened all those years ago and if Dyer can find it, he may be able to expose the truth. But someone else is determined to make sure he never gets the chance.

Following his leads from Tasmania to Argentina and finally to Michigan, where the story began, Dyer finds himself confronting an adversary whose reach and power are greater than he could have imagined. A personal investigation becomes a race against time, with Dyer increasingly isolated and the stakes rising with every step.

WHY WE CHOSE IT

When discussing crime fiction today, we can often find ourselves remarking on the irony that some of the most powerful people in the real world seem to have stepped straight out of a Bond novel, with their wealth, influence, corruption and willingness to abuse power. Frame 37 captures this idea that the villains of Fleming’s imagination no longer seem quite so far removed from the people who wield real power. What once belonged to the world of espionage fiction can, at times, be all too familiar.

Ian Fleming was, in his own way, responding to the political realities of his time, turning the anxieties of the Cold War into larger-than-life villains and conspiracies. Frame 37 approaches similar territory from a more grounded perspective, asking what happens when hidden power and political corruption are not exaggerated for the page, but feel uncomfortably close to reality.

For Bond fans, there is plenty here to get our teeth into: international intrigue, dangerous secrets, powerful adversaries and a protagonist who finds himself in increasingly deep water. But Frame 37 also gives us something different. Whether you have been reading Bond for decades or are new to Fleming and the wider world of espionage fiction, we hope it offers a fresh perspective on one of the things that makes Bond so enduring: the idea that, beneath all the fantasy, his villains are often reflections of very real fears about power, politics and the people who wield them.

THEMES TO CONSIDER

– Power and corruption – What happens when the people with the most power also have the most to hide?

– Truth, proof, photography – How much is the truth worth if you cannot prove it? What role do cameras play in espionage fiction?

– The ordinary man in extraordinary danger – What makes Dyer an effective thriller protagonist, and how does his vulnerability change the way we experience the danger?

REVIEWS

William Boyd – ‘A remarkable contemporary thriller… A triumph’

Evening Standard – ‘An absorbing thriller with shades of John le Carré’

The Times – ‘One of our best and truest novelists’

Spectator – ‘An intelligent, suspenseful take on classic thriller tropes that is nonetheless rooted in the mess of the here and now’

Daily Mail – ‘Superbly written, with atmosphere, intelligence and tension, it reminds you of the best of Graham Greene. There can be no higher praise’

Sunday Times – ‘If you’re not averse to a slow-burn literary thriller, this globe-trotting saga is a first-rate example: nothing is stereotypical’

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nicholas Shakespeare is a prize-winning novelist and biographer, described by the Wall Street Journal as ‘one of the best English novelists of our time’. One of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists 1993, his books have been translated into 22 languages. They include The Vision of Elena Silves, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, and The Dancer Upstairs, which was made into a film by John Malkovich and named Best Novel of 1995 by the American Libraries Association. His nonfiction includes the critically acclaimed authorised biography of Bruce Chatwin, In Tasmania, and Priscilla: the hidden life of an Englishwoman in Occupied France. He has been longlisted for the Booker Prize twice, was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

In 2023, Shakespeare released Ian Fleming: The Complete Man – the first authorised biography of the author since 1966 – and received the Crime Writer’s Association Gold Dagger for that year’s best non-fiction.

We hope you enjoy Frame 37. Stay tuned for more content and please share your thoughts with us if you read along!