Catherine Raynes: Quantum of Menace and The Hawk is Dead

Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Kahn  

Q is out of MI6 . . . 
. . . and in over his head 

After Major Boothroyd (aka Q) is unexpectedly ousted from his role with British Intelligence developing technologies for MI6's 00 agents, he finds himself back in his sleepy hometown of Wickstone-on-Water. His childhood friend, renowned quantum computer scientist Peter Napier, has died in mysterious circumstances, leaving behind a cryptic note. The police seem uninterested, but Q feels compelled to investigate and soon discovers that Napier's ground-breaking work may have attracted sinister forces... Can Q decode the truth behind Napier's death, even as danger closes in? 

  

The Hawk is Dead by Peter James  

Roy Grace never dreamed a murder investigation would take him deep into Buckingham Palace . . . 

Her Majesty, Queen Camilla, is aboard the Royal Train heading to a charity event in Sussex when disaster strikes - the train is derailed. 

A tragic accident or a planned attack? 

When, minutes later, a trusted aide is shot dead by a sniper, the police have their answer. 

Despite all the evidence, Roy Grace is not convinced The Queen was the intended target. But he finds himself alone in his suspicions. 

Fighting against the scepticism of his colleagues and the Palace itself, Grace pursues his own investigation. But when there is a second murder, the stakes rise even higher, and Grace is at risk of being embroiled in a very public catastrophe - and in mortal danger. 

Failure at this level is not an option. But time is running out before a killer in the Palace will strike again . . . 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks at.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Beat your book picks for the weekend. Katherine Rains is
our book reviewer, so we're going to track it down
in a couple of minutes. He's got a good couple
of options for anyone who's looking for a bit of
fiction over the summer. I don't know about you, but
as someone who is forever reading nonfiction, it's the one
time of year when I'm able to disconnect and actually

(00:32):
enjoy a bit of fiction as well. And so Catherine's
first book is Quantum of Menace by Vassin Kahan. Go
to Catherine, tell us about it morning.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
So this is a different look at the world of
James Bond, and it explores that world from Qu's perspective.
And so you meet him in his time and six
is up and he's been throwing out of his role
in favor of a new Q when this new m
takes charge and he's really at a loss what to do,
and he receives the very sad news that his childhood

(01:01):
friend Pete Napier, who's this cutting edge computer science and
you know, well deep in Worlds, has died and just
before his death, Peter had written to him suggesting that
his life might be in danger, and then the coroner's
report comes out and the police are an investigation and
agreement that it was death by misadventure that Q's not convinced,

(01:22):
and then another letter arrives and he begins his own investigation,
and after having spent his entire career in the James
Bond world hidden in a lab, he takes to the
field to try and work out what happened to his friend,
and he ends up back in his childhood village of
Wickstone on Water, has to confront a lot of ghosts
of the past, and you find a lot out about
him as well, and the more he investigates, the more

(01:43):
evident it becomes that someone is onto him and wants
to stop him. And so you get lots of modern
crime fair and modern war and crime and links to
the stories with the crime families and quantum computing, and
although James Bond isn't the hero of the story, there's
sort of lots of flashbacks to the interactions with Q
and lots of the other characters that people will be
familiar with, and the story is really good. It keeps

(02:04):
you guessing and if you're a Bond fan, this is
up mystery for you. And I think that Bond fans
will really enjoy this book.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Superb okay cool. So that's Quantum of Menace by Us
and Kahan. Next up, The Hawk Is Dead by Peter James.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
So this series features a detective and superintendent are Roy Grace,
and this one can be read as a real standalone novel,
And it starts when you're on board, when the Queen's
actually on board the Royal train heading for Sussex, and
there's a drailment in the tunnel and everybody's forced to
hop off the train and walk back through the tunnel,
and there's a train about to arrive, so there's lots

(02:40):
of pressure on people to really get to move on
and get out of the way. And then chaos ensues
as one of her aides is shot dead by what
appears to be a sniper and this derailment looks like
it's the work of protesters. As the story moves on,
and it looks like the Queen's just survived an assassination
attempt and the police have their answer, but actually Roy

(03:00):
has a very different opinion and he thinks the queen
wasn't the intended target, and actually they have got who
they intended to be, and so he ends up on
the palace and you know, the wealth and the meeting
the King and the Queen and all of the kind
of things that go on at the palace and the issues,
and there's police politics and the politics of the royal household.
And it's a really unpredictable book and hard to guess

(03:22):
where it's actually going, and it's quite twisting and intense,
and there's lots of secrets and surprises and political intrigue
and it's it's a good read with an interesting kind
of real life characters thrown in there in the mix
as well.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah right, okay, cool. That's The Hawk Is Dead by
Peter James. Catherine's first book, Quantum of Menace by Vasim Kahan,
and we'll make sure both of those are on the website.
Thanks Catherine. I have a great Saturday, and we will
catch you again for our final Saturday Morning Together of
twenty twenty five next weekend.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
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