Fin­ished Devil May Care by Sebas­t­ian Faulks. This book fea­tures Ian Fleming’s super­spy, James Bond.

In this book, it’s 1967, and Bond is on the last few days of a forced vaca­tion. But he gets called back early by M, who is wor­ried about a man named Dr. Julius Gorner, who is out to destroy Britain by import­ing drugs into the coun­try — and has a far nas­tier scheme up his sleeve that has global ram­i­fi­ca­tions. So M sends Bond out to find out what Gorner is up to. Along the way, Bond crosses paths with a beau­ti­ful woman Scar­lett, who also has her own axe to grind with Gorner …

I have to admit that I’m a hard­core James Bond fan. Love the books, love the movies. This book was writ­ten to cel­e­brate what would have been Fleming’s 100th birth­day in 2008, so of course, fan­girl that I am, I had to read it.

Faulks cer­tainly gives the reader a story in the vein of Fleming’s books. A sport­ing con­test, fine food and wine, exotic locales, gor­geous women — it’s all in the book. But it’s almost as if Faulks is try­ing a lit­tle too hard to chan­nel Flem­ing. I wasn’t that impressed by the vil­lain or his hench­man, and the sub­plot with Scar­lett just didn’t have the emo­tional impact of some of Bond’s pre­vi­ous relationships.

Still, I did like the way Faulks wove in a lot of the Bond mythol­ogy and his­tory from Fleming’s books. Over­all, a decent enough addi­tion to the Bond can­non. Thumbs up.

Up next: A Creed Coun­try Christ­mas by Linda Lael Miller

Books in my TBR pile: About 15.