Horowitz' second 007 novel after Trigger Mortis is a prequel that takes place before the events of Ian Fleming's first Bond adventure, Casino Royale, post-WW2. The original 007 is killed while investigating Corsican mobsters who have for some reason seemed to have left behind the highly profitable heroin trade -- but what are they up to now, M wonders. James Bond is given the License to Kill and asks to take the 007 number as a homage to the late operative, and continues the dead man's investigation in Marseilles. There he encounters CIA agent Reade Griffith as well as a beautiful older lady, an adventuress, named Sixtine, whose back story is fascinating. Sixtine not only teams up with Bond, but in some retrograde continuity that some readers may choose to reject, she's in part responsible for his taste in martinis and his bedmanship abilities.
There are two main villains in Forever and a Day: Jean-Paul Scipio and Irwin Wolfe. The former is a monstrously corpulent mobster who threatens Bond's face with an acid bath although he doesn't really want to wreck his good looks. (Bond is confused over this even though a report on Scipio suggests that he's homosexual, making 007 seem not only unsophisticated but a bit dumb). Irwin Wolfe is an American billionaire who makes film stock and is bitter over the deaths of his two sons in WW2. The two have cooked up a scheme on Wolfe's huge new ocean liner that threatens society. Against all odds, the captured Bond and Sixtine do their level best to sink the liner and its cargo.
For most of its length Forever and a Day is suspenseful and entertaining, although your eyebrows may rise over certain actions and attitudes of Bond, especially during the post script. Making Scipio gay seems more regressive than anything else, and his plans for 007 -- to turn him into a heroin addict who will become compliant in everything Scipio wants so the agent can get his fix -- is in questionable taste. Despite some very good scenes, Forever and a Day is a step backward from Trigger Mortis.
Verdict: Bond fans do not have to consider this adventure canon. **3/4.
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