Two more younger authors that I discovered.
Callum McSorley: He has written a lot of short stories. If IFP ever wanted to do a Bond short story novel again, he could write one or the whole book.
Abir Mukherjee: Thriller writer. A lot of his book titles sound like Bond titles, in a good way.
I’ve read two or three of his Wyndham and Banerjee novels, quite excellent thrillers somewhere in the murky no-man’s land between police procedural and espionage thriller. They are set in 1920s India and Mukherjee captures that time and place pretty convincingly. Plus, two recent thrillers set in present day have earned Mukherjee high praise. If there’s ever a Bond novel that immerses itself in one country and that country was India he’d probably be the right choice.
Two more authors.
Tess Gerritsen. She writes Romantic and Thriller novels. Some of the trademarks of her characters would fit for Bond and his characters. Plus, if IFP wants to have a Bond women lead story or a villain’s plot to have a medical standpoint or overall takeover, she would be perfect for a Bond novel.
Meg Gardiner. What she has said about crime and thriller novels is perfect for James Bond. Her characters truly have what should be Bond’s inner humanness. Plus, she’s lived all over the world. She also views no subject as taboo. Which I feel that the books would succeed in over the movies.
If memory serves both have been mentioned a few times as possible candidates back in the day - around the time of Deaver’s Carte Blanche? I forget - and are by now well established with their own work. After a long series of Rizzoli & Isles thrillers, Gerritsen started a (retired)spy series in the early 2020s and is probably three or four books into it by now. And Gardiner is possibly even more in-demand after her Heat2 collaboration with Michael Mann. Both these writers might deliver a great Bond continuation - but at the moment I’m eager to read Higson’s. And if King Zero is good I wouldn’t mind if he turned his Bond tenure into a longer run.
Yet one more that I forgot.
David McCloskey. Former CIA officer. Writer of Spy novels. Maybe good for another Felix Leiter novel.
Jason Matthews. American spy novel author.
Oops sorry late night. He still would have been a good candidate.