Age 10+

Charlie Higson’s first Young Bond book, Silver Fin, has sold 150,000 copies. In this substantial second volume, Higson has got into his stride. On a school trip to Sardinia, James Bond discovers the connection between Eton and, surprise, a criminal network bent on European domination. This is an action adventure with lots of fights but, to Higson’s credit, death, even for the villains, is never trivial, and violence has lingering consequences. Many of the characters are more than stereotypes, with complicated motives and particular eccentricities. Full of intriguing and well integrated detail, the book is revealing about, for instance, the customs of Eton, surrealism, the Roman Empire, Mussolini and Italian nationalism, cars between the wars, Sardinian costume and rituals, and underwater life in the Mediterranean. And it suggests that one of the best qualifications for being a spy is paying attention: acquiring knowledge pays off. A sense of honour helps, too, as our hero saves a girl hostage. Bond is slow on the uptake about a villain’s identity, but this assured book has a driving plot that you have to see resolved.

(Puffin £6.99)

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