Devil May Care Publisher: Penguin Pages: 295 Languages: English RRP: £18.99

Book Review:

“Come in, 007,” said M. ‘It’s good to see you back.”

Such was the little tease that the people at Penguin would let us have until the general public could read the new James Bond novel, ‘Devil May Care.’ Not since last year and the release of the final episode of the Harry Potter saga has the country waited with bated breath for a book to be released. You can always tell when a book is going to be massive because people just don’t wait for the paperback version to come out, which can be said for ‘Devil May Care.’ What has this book got to do with martial arts though, you might ask? Well, it could be argued that this most famous of action hero has to fight his way out of many a sticky situation and besides, it would be rude not to!

The basic story of this novel, that picks up from where Ian Fleming left off in ‘The Man With the Golden Gun’ in the 1960s, begins with Bond on an extended holiday enforced by the powers that be to recuperate and consider his future in the secret service. Of course, this sojourn doesn’t last for long as he is called in by M to investigate the suspicious dealings of our arch-villain, Dr Julius Gorner. Bearing in mind this is the sixties, we are still in the middle of the cold war, America is fighting a war in Vietnam and M has discovered Yoga. Our Bond babe is the delectable Scarlett Papava and from the time Bond leaves his flat in Chelsea the pace does not let up at the story moves to Iran (or Persia as it was known then) and includes drugs, a missing airliner and a dastardly plot to blow up Great Britain.

Yet this novel has something more to it than just an action adventure story. This is a novel written not my Ian Fleming but esteemed author, Sebastian Faulks, but when reading ‘Devil May Care’ you really would not notice the difference. Faulks, author of ‘Birdsong’ and ‘Charlotte Grey’ shows his true writing calibre as he takes on the mantle of Fleming. Faulks was commissioned to write this Bond novel by the Fleming estate to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Fleming on 28^th May 1908 and makes a very, very good job of it. Faulks has stayed true to the Fleming novels by making reference to Bond’s previous adventures and including all of the best loved characters including M, Moneypenny and Felix Leiter and also not including any explosive suitcases or invisible cars as we discover “Bond, who didn’t like gadgets.” What you get from reading this book is an insight into the cold, effective agent with a love of American cigarettes, alcohol and beautiful women. If you want a cracking adventure that you will not be able to put down, read this book.

Oh go on then, a bit of martial arts for you...

“Rather than cut the man’s throat, Bond used the carotid takedown.”

...that’s the best I could find!