Icebreaker, first published in 1983, was the third novel by John Gardner featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. Carrying the Glidrose Publications copyright, it was first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape and is the first Bond novel to be published in the United States by Putnam, beginning an association that continued through The Man with the Red Tattoo in 2002.

Plot summary

Bond reluctantly finds himself recruited into a dangerous mission involving an equally dangerous and treacherous alliance of agents from the United States, the Soviet Union and Israel who waste no time double-crossing each other. Ostensibly their job is to root out the leader of the murderous National Socialist Action Army (NSAA), Count Konrad von Gloda. The Count used to be known as Arne Tudeer, a onetime Nazi who now perceives himself as the new Adolf Hitler. Things become complicated when the Israeli agent on Bond's team reveals that she is actually the daughter of von Gloda/Tudeer, and the Russian agent double-crosses Bond in hopes of capturing him for KGB interrogation.

Trivia

• Gardner, on his website, reveals that his publisher originally rejected the title Icebreaker, only to come back to it after rejecting "turkey after turkey" in terms of alternate titles.