Denver author Francine Mathews gets inside the head of Ian Fleming, the writer who created the world’s most famous spy, in her new book, “Too Bad To Die.”
She puts Fleming in the middle of a Nazi plot to kill Allied leaders, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin during World War II.
Drawing from her own experience as a former CIA analyst, she weaves a fictional story around real people and events in 1943.
The pyramids of Giza, the streets of Cairo and the embassies of Tehran are the backdrop for this complex thriller.
As Mathews imagines the Fleming as he first invents James Bond, Bond fans will find nuggets of 007 legend like “martini shaken, not stirred.”
Historical fiction and spy novels are among Mathews specialties. Her earlier books include Jack 1939 about a young John F. Kennedy and The Alibi Club set in wartime Paris.
Read an excerpt and listen to a conversation with Mathews on Colorado Matters – produced by Shanna Lewis
Shanna Lewis - Radio Journalist, Photographer 