Line #35 Literature/TriggerMortis


1	[[quoteright:231:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/51pp0fuvjnl_sy344_bo1204203200.jpg]]
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3	A ''Literature/JamesBond'' novel published in 2015, and written by Creator/AnthonyHorowitz. It contains small amounts of material originally written by Creator/IanFleming, from a series of short pitches for a potential TV series that never was. The original pitch was titled "Murder on Wheels", which becomes a chapter title in the novel.
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5	It's 1957, UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace is heating up, and [[Literature/{{Goldfinger}} James Bond and Pussy Galore]] are living together in Bond's flat... and it's starting to grate. So Bond jumps at the chance to take a mission involving one of his favourite pastimes: motor-racing. But a Soviet plot to kill a racing driver [[MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot leads Bond to discover something far bigger]], which puts the future of the U.S. space program at risk.
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8	!!Tropes:
9	* ActionGirl: Jeopardy Lane is notably ''not'' this early on, being a [[spoiler: Treasury agent way out of her depth]]. Once she [[spoiler: gets on a motorcycle, though, her past as a Globe of Death motorcyclist comes in handy.]]
10	* BigBad: Jason Sin, aka Sin Jai-Seong, a Korean businessman with a grudge against... everyone, really.
11	* BuriedAlive: For the traditional Fleming-esque torture scene, Bond is buried alive. [[Awesome/TriggerMortis Needless to say, he escapes.]]
12	* ChekhovsSkill: Jeopardy Lane's past as a fairground Globe of Death driver turns out to be useful later.
13	* ContinuityNod: Besides ones to ''Literature/{{Goldfinger}}'', to which this is an ImmediateSequel, Bond notes he lost his taste for watching missile launches [[Literature/{{Moonraker}} after he was entirely too close to one]].
14	* CoolBike: A 650CC Triumph Thunderbird, which Jeopardy Lane and Bond use to chase [[spoiler: Sin's subway train bomb.]]
15	* CoolCar: Bond drives a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maserati_250F Maserati 250f]], one of the most beautiful racing cars ever built, around the Nürburgring. The book also features the (retroactive) first appearance of his new personal car, a Bentley Mk VI.
16	* CoolTrain: Horowitz spends a little time talking about how gorgeous the post-war R11 subway cars were.
17	* CutleryEscapeAid: Jeopardy Lane manages to steal a knife during a dinner provided by Jason Sin, and Bond later uses it help himself to dig out from being buried alive.
18	* EvilPlan: Jason Sin (under direction from SMERSH) plans to sabotage the test flight of the Vanguard rocket, which seems at first to Bond to be overly simplistic - rockets blow up all the time, after all. [[spoiler: The real trick is to blow up the Empire State Building along with a replica of the Vanguard missile. A few judiciously placed "witnesses" will mean it'll appear the debris from the aborted Vanguard launch landed in Manhattan, destroying the iconic building and killing thousands. Even if they find the real wreckage in the Atlantic eventually, the enquiry and public backlash will have set back the US ten years in the Space Race.]]
19	* {{Expy}}: In Fleming's original plot sketch, Lancy Smith was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_Moss Stirling Moss]]. Horowitz made him an {{Expy}} because the real Moss was still alive when the book was released, so he [[ForegoneConclusion obviously wasn't killed by Russian assassins in 1957]].
20	* FixFic: To ''Literature/{{Goldfinger}}''. In particular, to the plot point of Bond "converting" Pussy Galore to heterosexuality. Here, while she is genuinely attracted to Bond, she is still very much attracted to women as well, and ends up paired with Logan Fairfax, Bond's other first act love interest, when Bond leaves for the Nürburgring. This has the added benefit of sparing both women the [[DisposableWoman all too common fate]] of those who don't end up paired with Bond at the end of their stories.
21	* FourEyesZeroSoul: Jason Sin's bottle-lens glasses hide eyes that are absolutely dead.
22	* FreudianExcuse: When Sin was a child, he saw his entire family killed in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Gun_Ri_massacre the No Gun Ri Massacre]] by American troops. Though rather than making him hate Americans specifically, it turned him into a [[MisanthropeSupreme pathological misanthrope.]]
23	* GreaterScopeVillain: SMERSH are paying Sin to sabotage the rocket flight. But beyond that, he genuinely doesn't care about them or their politics in the least.
24	* HotSubOnSubAction: Bond keeps calm while he's being buried alive by remembering being on board [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Trespasser_(P312) HMS Trespasser]] during the real-life incident when the Captain thought it was a case of this... but he actually torpedoed a dead whale. The incident was [[AnachronicOrder earlier/later]] referred to in ''Literature/{{Thunderball}}'', where Bond mentioned his wartime experience as supercargo on a submarine.
25	* IfItsYouItsOkay: With a touch of FixFic for the ValuesDissonance in ''Literature/{{Goldfinger}}'',[[note]] in which she was only a lesbian because she was abused by her uncle as a kid [[/note]] Pussy Galore decides that she's had fun with James, and has no regrets, but from now on she'll stick to women.
26	* JustFollowingOrders: The young man driving the digger that [[BuriedAlive dug Bond's grave.]] He explains that he's an ex-con who took the only job he could to support his family, and now he can't leave or they'll kill him. Bond, still going through the [[WhatMeasureIsAMook crisis of conscience]] he was in at the start of ''Literature/{{Goldfinger}}'', agonises over whether to kill him or risk him giving away Bond's escape. [[spoiler: He knocks him out, but only at the very last second. He decides that's the difference between him and his enemies - [[PetTheDog he's capable of mercy even at possible risk to himself]].]]
27	* LackOfEmpathy: An [[TheSociopath utterly complete lack of empathy]] is Sin's scariest characteristic.
28	* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: It's the trope-naming series, and Jason Sin does an absolutely textbook example. He puts on (an apparently mediocre) dinner for Bond and Jeopardy, including a badly-made martini. He then [[JustBetweenYouAndMe shares the details of his plan because he plans to kill them both.]] Bond [[YoureInsane bluntly tells him to shove it.]] And Jeopardy pockets a CutleryEscapeAid at the end.
29	* PairTheSuitors: For a certain definition of "suitor". Pussy Galore and James Bond begin the novel as an official couple, but it's clear the relationship is close to having run its course. Meanwhile, Logan Fairfax and Bond clearly share a mutual attraction, but there is also an enormous amount of hesitancy – and most of it on Logan's part – to see the relationship progress beyond teacher/student and the occasional dinner together. In any event, the two women ultimately end up together.
30	* RacingTheTrain: Bond and Lane follow Sin's train from Coney Island to Manhattan by motorcycle.
31	* RedRightHand: An unusually psychological example for a Bond novel – Sin is described as "passably good-looking" rather than a Fleming-esque grotesque. But he wears extremely strong-prescription glasses, and behind them, his eyes are described as [[EyesNeverLie absolutely dead and expressionless]].
32	* SequelEpisode: The novel takes place a few weeks after ''Literature/{{Goldfinger}}'', and for a change, actually shows the end of James' relationship with the GirlOfTheWeek.
33	* TakeMeOutAtTheBallGame: Bond is initially tasked with preventing the murder of Formula 1 driver Lancy Smith during a race at the Nürburgring.
34	* TextualCelebrityResemblance: Jeopardy Lane is described as looking like Creator/JeanSeberg.
35	* TitleDrop: The titular "trigger mortis" is an in-universe PunnyName for the self-destruct switch on the Vanguard rocket.
36	* WhatMeasureIsAMook: Bond gets confronted with this ''hard'' when he meets the guy who drove the digger that [[BuriedAlive buried him alive]] earlier. The guy – practically a kid – insists he's [[BadBoss trapped in the job because they'd kill him if he left]] and pleads for his life. Unfortunately, [[KickTheDog Bond can't afford to let him live.]] [[spoiler: A few pages later it turns out he [[PetTheDog changed his mind at the last moment]].]]
37	* WrenchWench: Logan Fairfax, daughter of a Grand Prix racer and expert driver herself. [[spoiler: She ends up with Pussy Galore rather than James Bond!]]

Context Literature / TriggerMortis