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Book Review: Carte Blanche

    Hey, everyone. Someone bought me a hardcover edition of the latest James Bond book by Jeffery Deaver. It was a Christmas present and I was glad to get it because I make a practice of reading all the Bond books and seeing all the Bond movies. I crawled under a fence at a drive-in theater to see my first Bond film. This was in the 1960's and I was a kid, but it was massively cool to see Goldfinger on the big screen. Probably not a great thing to see the gold-painted lady when you are that young, but I have been a James Bond fan for life. Of course, any time I read one of the novels, I picture Bond as Sean Connery, as most people do. I feel he will always be the best Bond, although Daniel Craig is excellent.
    I love the writings of Ian Fleming and his Bond books are the best. He had a background in the spy game and he knew it well. He loved booze, ladies and the tropics, which made him AOK in my book. But I digress from my review.
      In Carte Blanche, James Bond is dealing with a new job. He has joined a new organization, although M is still his boss and he is still a spy with the coveted or dreaded (depending on your point of view) oo prefix. He is licensed to kill but not with carte blanche, because the book starts with him in England, where other people have the authority. People like MI 5, the police etc.
    I actually misspoke about the start of the book being in England. It starts in Serbia, where Bond prevents a train derailment by a bad guy named Niall Dunne. The man escapes but Bond is on his trail. He discovers that Dunne works for an odd duck by the name of Severan Hydt, who is the king of garbage collection and recycling. This creepy dude loves dead things and decay. His main chick is a 60 something year old, former beauty queen. He won't allow her to wear any make-up or anything to cover up her wrinkles because it turns him on. He also collects graphic photos of dead people. I would call him twisted, but I like to shoot zombies and mutants, so who am I to criticize him?
     Mr. Hydt and his pard, Niall Dunne, have a plot to blow up a target and cause the deaths of thousands of people. The problem is that James Bond doesn't know where the target is. Worse, he is saddled with the 'help' of a twit from another branch of government. Percy Osbourne-Smith has a differing style from 007 and their methods tend to clash. Bond is relieved when the trail, and Hydt, lead him out of the country, to Dubai and then to South Africa. The book is meticulous in the details of travel, perhaps too much so. When you describe a left turn, across the road from a hotel of a certain name, it will be a hoot for a local of that place to read, but it makes the reading tedious for some of us. Of course, this guy has 17 bestsellers, so who am I to critique his work?
     Once he is away from England, Bond can kill, if necessary, to perform his duty. The problem is, in Africa he is hooked up with a by-the-book lady from the local police who hates him on sight. She has her own baggage and Jerry Springer couldn't sort it out. (That's a joke.) Their struggle to stop the mad schemes of Severan Hydt are the bulk of the story.
    May I say that this book drug along? I had trouble finishing it. There was a bit of mystery and a nice plot twist at the end. But, really, the action scenes could have been better and it moved slow. It is an okay book, but it didn't blow my skirt up. Wow, that didn't even feel right, saying that. Just an expression, I assure you. Anyway, I would rate it as 2.5 stars out of 5. I will also say that I like the fact that Deaver refrained from writing one of those 'save the planet' stories for 007. We have had enough of those. It was more of a 'real world' scenario, I think, and I liked that. If I ever were privileged to write a Bond book, I would write one where a retired 007, played by Sean Connery, has to find and save Moneypenny from an abductor. Perhaps he'd be one of Bond's old foes who was trying to lure him from hiding. At the end, I'd allow the two to walk off into the sunset together. The problem is, I'd put too much sex in it and therefore, the Bond estate would never use it. I've thought about writing it anyway and just throwing it in the closet when I'm done. I mean, if I never try to publish it or sell it, I couldn't be sued. It would just be for fun, right?
    I would like to do a little more character development than some of the books, but I love the action too. Hey, I can dream, can't I?
    One more point about the review. In Carte Blanche, we discover a bit more about Bond's past. Specifically,about James' parents. Was his father a spy? Worse yet, was he a Soviet spy? Or was his mother a spy? Read the book if you like, and you can know the rest of the story. (Apologies to Paul Harvey for using his line.)
    From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
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