I’m sure there is a market for a slightly left-field, slightly nerdy cosy crime series with a vague Bond and/or espionage connection. Just as there was a market for 40 different iterations of the Dick Francis horse racing thriller. But I really suspect it’s a comparatively niche one, its Venn diagram made up of 1) Vaseem Khan completists 2) Bond completists 3) cosy crime completists and 4) people suffering from digestive-induced insomnia.
Mind you, this may be great books and I’m sure Vaseem Khan put his heart into this, absolutely. I really wish them well - I just struggle to find myself in that Venn diagram. But if people read and enjoy them and perhaps start reading and enjoying other Bond stuff because of this Q series, then much the better and welcome to the newcomers to the franchise.
In about a year we are set to meet another facet of the Bond utilisation cycle with headmaster Bond, so I suppose this will not be the most unlikely of creatures from the Doctor F̶r̶a̶n̶k̶e̶n̶s̶t̶e̶i̶n̶ Amazon laboratories…
ADDENDUM: The Quick News Submission - all the news that’s not fit to go somewhere else - #266 by Dustin