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A FORTUNE IN STOLEN GOLD...
A DEVICE THAT WILL KILL MILLIONS...
AND JUST ONE MAN CAN STOP IT!

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.

• First publication ever!
• A lost novel by MWA Grand Master Donald E. Westlake
• Inspired by Westlake’s treatment for a James Bond movie that never got filmed

"One of the great writers of the 20th Century."

— Newsweek

"Westlake’s ability to construct an action story filled with unforeseen twists and quadruple-crosses is unparalleled."

— San Francisco Chronicle

"The novel’s deeper meditations will keep you thinking long after you’ve closed the book."

— USA Today