Death to Spies: A Novel of the Espionage Adventures of Ian Fleming [Large Print]

Being a bigger fan of Ian Fleming's Bond novels than EON's Bond films, I found this book to have the same sense of period wonder and naiveté that the Bond books have with much of the same travelogue quality that, after reading a chapter or two, makes me feel like I've actually been somewhere else. As one customer remarked, this book feels much like a Bond in that the authors have duplicated the Fleming sweep, moving the plot along very quickly and the attention to detail is very effective but unlike the Bond books, Ian Fleming is a very believable character living in a very believable world. There are no outlandish villains, grueling torture scenes or science fiction elements to be found here. Fleming is very much a man of his wits, not of his fists. While bad and dangerous things do happen, they are the kind of harrowing things that happen in real life. The action is to real life scale, not epic scale. This might account for the disappointed quality of some other Bond fan's review of this book. This isn't just a redress of the Bond character. Ian Fleming is, as he probably was, a charming, chain smoking, alcoholic member of England's elite upper class, enjoying the high life in Jamaica while most of England was still suffering an economic and spiritual depression after World War 2. More refined than James Bond, Quinn Fawcett's Ian Fleming is an enjoyable character through which to see the world the way it used to be. Or rather, how it might have been for those few lucky enough and wealthy enough to be able to build winter homes in the tropics to escape the chilling winters in England. Like the Bond novels, texture, mood and ambience account for a lot of this book's appeal. The descriptions of food might very well make you hungry and the reader gets a strong sense of what it might have been like for Ian Fleming escaping to Goldeneye every winter. Unlike the Bond novels, there are times when it feels a bit like Ian Fleming is eating and drinking his way through to a not entirely suspenseful conclusion. In fact, this book reminded me a bit of the Cohn Brothers film Fargo in this way ("It's a Radisson!"). Not a bad thing, just not the kind of thing that keeps you turning the pages way past bedtime. The journey in this book is the worthier part than the destination. Still, if you like the Bond books and don't expect to find James Bond trussed up like Ian Fleming, you'll probably enjoy this book. I certainly did, though it was a slightly lower octane, gentler kind of thriller written with much of the same charm and style of the Bond books. Chin-chin.