“From a View to a Kill” is one of the of For Your Eyes Only, collection of five James Bond short stories by Ian Fleming.

Plot summary: “From a View to a Kill” sees Bond investigating the murder of a dispatch-rider from SHAPE (central command of NATO in Europe located in Versailles) to his base, Station F, in Saint-Germain, France. Since Bond was already in Paris, M sends Bond to assist in the investigation in any way he can. To unravel the mystery Bond disguises himself as a dispatch-rider and follows the same journey as the previous rider to Station F. As expected, the assassin attempts to kill Bond, however, Bond is ready and ends up killing the assassin.

The title is taken from a version of the words to a traditional hunting song, “D’ye ken John Peel?”: “From a find to a check, from a check to a view,/ From a view to a kill in the morning”. The title, “From a View to a Kill” was later used for the 1985 Bond film, A View to a Kill. Originally, the film was to be titled the same as the short story, but was changed just prior to release. The title, plus the fact part of the film takes place in France, is where any similarity between the short story and the film end.

According to Henry Chancellor’s James Bond: The Man and His World, “From a View to a Kill” was initially intended to be the backstory for Hugo Drax, the villain of Moonraker. The similar story would have taken place during World War II and featured Drax as the motorcycle assassin who crashes his bike and is taken to an American field hospital. Later the hospital is bombed leaving Drax with amnesia and a disfigured face.