Lee Child Declines Offer to be Next James Bond Author

Child was a frontrunner in the race for becoming the successor to Raymond Benson, but has declined an offer to pen the 2008 James Bond novel. When his official website was asked about the speculation surrounding him and the project, his representative said: "Lee was indeed contacted with regard to writing the next few Bond novels, but he had to decline their very generous offer.

Forum member "Moore" investigated. The reply continued, "right now, he's focusing on Reacher and only Reacher. In fact, The Hard Way (out on May 16th in the US and July 3rd in the UK) is the first in a new four Reacher novel contract so we've got a lot to look forward to!"

Ian Fleming Publications announced last year that they were planned to release a new adult James Bond thriller novel in 2008 to celebrate the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth. It now appears that this is not just a one off project, with authors being approached to pen a series of books.