Brian James Smith reviews Hurricane Room (2026) by Kim Sherwood

By: Brian James Smith

Published:
2026-08-21

Hurricane Room, Kim Sherwood, review, recension

On Sean Connery’s birthday, 25 August, author Kim Sherwood will take to the stage to discuss Hurricane Room at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival. Brian James Smith, our man in Scotland, reviews this final book in the Double O trilogy following Double or Nothing (2022) and A Spy Like Me (2024).

James Bond Is Alive!

As Kim Sherwood makes her exit as a kind of supersonic Ian Fleming, Hurricane Room is the hugely absorbing final instalment in the Double O trilogy. James Bond is back, but at a psychological low ebb having been tortured physically and mentally by Colonel Mora, head of the private military company Rattenfänger. Like a shadow with nowhere to fall, Bond is damaged. Joanna Harwood recalls Blofeld’s words after he murdered Bond’s wife: ‘I reduced him to human dimensions.’ We’ve experienced Bond in states of mental distress before, but here the stakes have never been higher as Harwood has to exfiltrate them from Saint Petersburg while trying to regain his trust. Bound for Vladivostok, the pair embark on an incident-packed journey in the opposite direction Bond took between Fleming’s You Only Live Twice (1964) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1965). Pleasingly, as the journey unfolds, the old 007 begins to resurface.

Meanwhile, the Double O division is falling apart. Conrad Harthrop-Vane, Agent 000, is a wrong ‘un and he’s got help from a mole at the heart of MI6. Moneypenny has been captured by Mora while Joseph Dryden is pursuing his own line of enquiry which brings him into contact with Felix Leiter. There are flashbacks written in the first person, providing Emery Ware – and the reader – with a unique view of a pre-Double O Bond on assignment in Moscow (this, inspired by an aside to M in Fleming’s Moonraker published in 1955). The plot to inflict a large-scale cyberattack on the UK is scarily prescient.

Danger and excitement stalk every page as Sherwood serves up her signature concoction of action, suspense, violence and the fantastical aligned with real-world politics. Hurricane Room is a wonderful, satisfying conclusion to the Double O Trilogy.

Review by Brian Smith. Copyright © 2026 From Sweden with Love. All rights reserved.

Editor's Note:
Available Hurricane Room editions:

>UK hardback edition
>UK Large Print paperback edition
>US hardback edition
>UK audio book edition
>Kindle edition

Tickets for the Kim Sherwood: James Bond — Hurricane Room event at Edinburgh International Book Festival on 25th August 2026 can be purchased HERE.

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Brian James Smith reviews Hurricane Room (2026) by Kim Sherwood

Danger and excitement stalk every page as Sherwood serves up her signature concoction of action, suspense, violence and the fantastical aligned with real-world politics. Hurricane Room is a wonderful, satisfying conclusion to the Double O Trilogy.

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