High Time to Kill, published in 1999, is the fourth novel by Raymond Benson featuring Ian Fleming’s secret agent, James Bond. This is the first James Bond novel copyrighted by Ian Fleming Publications (formerly Glidrose Publications). It was published in the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton and in the United States by Putnam.

Plot summary: The world of James Bond is introduced to the ruthless terrorist organisation called ‘The Union’, whose brutal trademark is slashing the throat of those who cross them. When a top secret British formula hidden in microfilm, codenamed ‘Skin 17’, is stolen and surgically implanted in the pacemaker of an unhealthy old man, James Bond is sent in to recover it before The Union and a boyish rival named Roland Marquis can sell the microfilm to a foreign power. When the plane of the pacemaker’s host is hijacked and crashed into the Himalayas, a deadly race commences to recover Skin 17. The race climaxes with Bond battling Marquis atop the peak of Kangchenjunga. After a physical high elevation fight, Bond escapes with Skin 17 and leaves Marquis to freeze to death atop the great peak.