Death to Spies

Rating:
Summary: Faux James Bond
Review: Written in the style of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, this brief exercise follows an imaginary Ian Fleming, intelligence agent, as he is forced to leave his home in Jamaica and travel about posing as a journalist trying to find what sort of nasty business has a rogue British agent killing people. In keeping with the style of the Bond books, the author has to spend considerable time describing what his characters wear, eat, drink, smoke, drive, etc. as Fleming and his stalwart pals end up trying to ward off attempts on Fleming's own life. Casting Ian Fleming as the hero here was obviously inspired by the fact that the real Fleming was involved with British intelligence operations at one time. The book is a pleasant and easy read, but the stilted dialogue and rather naive characters are not as much fun in today's world as they were when the Bond series first appeared.