Jeffery Deaver - Is he the right writer for the new James Bond novel Project X?
Seven actors have played James Bond on the big screen. (00)Seven actors - if you care not to ignore David Niven in the often ignored 1967 film version of Casino Royale - in 48 years is a low turnover rate. That is nothing compared to five official Bond authors (not counting Young Bond and Moneypenny Diaries spin-offs) in 57 years. That works out to one writer for every 12 years. However, 2011 will see a sixth author publish an official 007 novel … and the second new name to grace a Bond hardcover in three years. So why the rush? Ian Fleming Publications recently announced that it has “chosen international bestselling thriller writer, Jeffery Deaver, to write a new James Bond book. The novel, currently known as Project X, will be published on May 28, 2011 - for Ian Fleming’s birthday.” Well, that clears up the rush to appoint and, perhaps anoint, a new Bond scribe.
With just the one Bond novel - Devil May Care - to his name, the previous Bond author Sebastian Faulks can lay ignominious claim to being the George Lazenby of 007 novelists. A one-hit wonder. Or, in Faulks’ case, a one-bestseller wonder. To be fair to Faulks he was brought on board as a one-off to write ‘as Ian Fleming’ in tribute of the original author’s centenary in 2008
Writing under his own name and in his own style, Chicago-born Deaver had this to say on his enthronement to the Ian Fleming dynasty, “I can’t describe the thrill I felt when first approached by Ian Fleming’s estate to ask if I’d be interested in writing the next book in the James Bond series.”
The former journalist, folk singer and attorney went on to add, “I began reading them when I was about nine or ten, ignorant of the Cold War politics they explored but enthralled by their sense of adventure and derring-do. I continued to read and reread them, which was fortunate because as a teen and adult I found, of course, nuances, that were invisible to a child.”
Directly inspired or not, Deaver won the 2004 Crime Writers’ Association’s Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for his pre-war hit-man novel Garden Of Beasts. This award is given for the best adventure/thriller novel in the vein of James Bond.
Coincidentally or not, Deaver may have been further groomed to his latest role a few years later. In 2006 he contributed an introduction to the reprint of Casino Royale. In this brief eulogistic exercise he outlined his perception of the secret agent he will soon be bringing back to life in print, “Think Cold War spy, and the word ‘anti hero’ comes to mind. This is not James Bond. He is a classic adventure-story hero. He confronts evil. Simple as that.” He went on, “James Bond is a hero for our times but, on reflection, I think that’s wrong. Bond is a hero for all time, and Fleming’s novels feed a universal hunger people have always had for stories about all-too-human characters who are always willing to confront evil, whatever sacrifices have to be made.”
It is this ‘universal hunger’ that Bond fans starved of fresh 007 fare have quickly turned into a feeding frenzy. With the unnamed Bond 23 film in terminal meltdown while MGM sorts out its complex financial and legal woes, Project X may be the one crumb of comfort Bond fans the world over can look forward to … for the next few years at least.
Having grown up reading Fleming’s novels, Deaver was especially taken with 007’s apocryphal, post-apocalyptic appearance some eight years after the end of the Second World War. “Bond is given £25,000 (that’s in 1950s currency, no less) and told to use it to bankrupt the villain on the gambling floor, while on full expenses on the French coast, assisted by some particularly gorgeous love interest,” he wrote in his Casino Royale introduction. “Come on, does it get any better than that?”
What can we expect from Deaver in this eagerly awaited continuation? He was suitably tight-lipped at the press launch as to which direction he would be taking 007. As The Sunday Times observed of the press launch, “Beyond divulging that the book will be set in the present day and will ‘stay true to the persona of James Bond as Fleming created him,’ Deaver is guarding the details with all the ferocious zeal of Rosa Klebb, the dagger-toed SMERSH officer in From Russia With Love.”
In the past Deaver has been more forthcoming with what drives his stories and plot lines, “I always love playing with the misidentification of my villains (and good guys too sometimes),” he told TeenReads.com in 2001. “Plot twists and surprises please readers and I try hard to incorporate them into all of my books.”
Seeing that I have no experience of Deaver’s past work and cannot effectively judge his Bond credentials, I surfed the web looking for any insight others might have had on his qualifications for the task at hand. Hope quickly turned to despair as I was confronted by two strikingly similar knee-jerk headlines more suited to the Bank Holiday nightshift at The Sun rather than The Guardian and The Times respectively …
“Jeffery Deaver given licence to thrill with new James Bond book.”
“Jeffery Deaver given licence to thrill as author takes on James Bond.”
Let us hope that Deaver brings more originality to the table than those subs who deserve to be depth-charged from a great height. Not to be left out, the American press got in on the act of recycling Bondisms. Howard Genlser, in The Philadelphia Daily News, offered, “Two of [my] favorite entertainments - James Bond and Jeffery Deaver - are going to be shaken (not stirred).”
Despair turned to despondency as I trawled the Mail Online. Not surprisingly, the Mail played the jingoistic joker card. However, its John Bullish James Bond review came back to bite them like Richard Kiel’s Jaws. Paul Bentley wrote in horror-shock-probe apoplexy that “the decision is set to shock patriotic fans of the British institution - Deaver’s book will be the first 007 adventure written by a non-Brit.”
Shocking indeed, if not for the fact that Deaver will be the second American to get the Bond writing gig. Raymond Benson (born in Texas but coincidentally also lived in Chicago) wrote six Bond novels, three film novelizations and three short stories during his seven-year tenure from 1996.
[For the record Kingsley Amis and John Gardner are the other official Bond authors].
Four newspapers down and I was no nearer learning about Deaver’s true writing credentials. I was even beginning to wonder if anyone had actually read the man or had an original opinion about his works. The Independent came to my rescue. Arifa Akbar offered this insight, “Some may be surprised at the choice of a Bond writer who describes his own work as featuring ‘violence and the aftermath of violence.’ Yet he is doubtless a master of creating suspense and this will hold him in good stead while tackling Bond.”
The self-styled violent streak in Deaver’s work was also picked up by The Sunday Times in a profile piece, “In Faulks’ stab at Bond, the British spy looks in the mirror at one point and tells himself: ‘You’re tired. You’re played out. Finished.’ Now it’s up to Deaver to prove whether the old sadist has another shot in his locker.”
With seemingly little to go on regarding the new kid on the writer’s block, most reviewers took the path of least resistance and compared Deaver to his immediate predecessor. “Sounds like he’s getting more into it than Faulks who, even at the point of publication, was rather sniffy about the Fleming centenary Devil May Care project: knocking it out in six weeks as a technical exercise,” wrote Owen Williams on EmpireOnline.com. He went on to point out, “That didn’t stop it achieving the status of Penguin’s fastest selling title ever though.”
Ben Hoyle - trying hard to redeem The Times’ literary reputation - pulled in former Bond actors and writers in his appraisal of the future publication, “Not since Roger Moore took over 007’s dinner jacket from George Lazenby* has there been a more pronounced gear change in James Bond’s world. Out goes Sebastian Faulks, the urbane literary novelist from West London, after just one successful Bond novel - Devil May Care.” Hoyle added, “In comes his hard-boiled American replacement Jeffery Deaver: a multi-million selling crime writer whose trademarks are gruesome villains and elaborate plot twists.”
[*Roger Moore actually succeeded Sean Connery - who returned to duty as Bond after Lazenby’s sole outing in On Her Majesty’ s Secret Service.]
Sadism, hard-boiled violence, gruesome villains and dinner jackets! Now we are getting to the bona fide foundations of the Fleming formula. Although comparing Deaver’s oeuvre to Fleming’s originals was firmly put into context by a major book store. Foyles’ website reminded us of the gulf between the writers, “Deaver still has a long way to go to catch up with Fleming in terms of book sales. He will have to rack up a further 80 million if he is to surpass the Casino Royale author.”
All in all, media reaction to Deaver’s appointment has been politely complimentary in a ‘wait and see’ manner. Perhaps the best way to assess Deaver’s suitability is to ask his fans … the ones that have read him over and over. The ones who know him, his books, his characters and are not afraid of speaking out.
A couple of comments posted on Deaver’s Facebook page in response to the Project X news make for interesting reading among the overwhelmingly devoted support for his new task at hand.
Sean Baron posted his take on another potential cross-novel merger, “Awsome! Now if only we can get Jeff to write a novel with Patricia Cornwall and have him kill off that evil Kay Scarpetta character!”
More pertinently Ros Kennedy added a note of caution to the Bond film producers, “As long as Daniel Craig doesn’t play him in the movie.”
On the subject of the Bond movies, the Sean Connery incarnation was voted 11th ‘Greatest Movie Character of All-Time’ by an Empire magazine poll. Back at number 55 was another screen action hero … one Lt. Frank Drebin of Naked Gun infamy. To paraphrase that hapless agent, one sincerely hopes that come May of next year when I finally read one of Jeffery’s novels, I can safely say, “Nice Deaver!”
It is safe to say the jury is out on Jeffery Deaver and his 007 assignment, but his engagement has created much less furore than that which hounded the most recent actor to step into Bond’s suede Church Ryders.
In considering Deaver’s credentials to be the new Bond novelist we should, at least, let him have the last word. In his Casino Royale introduction he made the following critique, “Ian Fleming was a fine travel writer too and we quickly come to know and appreciate the locales in the book as we do the characters. All this is inspired in Fleming’s characteristic style, reflecting his years as a working journalist. The prose is lean, often wry and never self-conscious. He employs words the way Bond does weapons: without flourish. They get the job done.”
And the best possible outcome we can hope for next year when we finally read Deaver’s words, dissect his convoluted plots, analyse his gruesome Bond villains, marvel at his beautiful Bond Girls, and judge his present day James Bond … is that “they get the job done.”
Colin M Jarman
Editor
James Bond: Licence To Quote
Blue Eyed Books
Project X: New James Bond Author Jeffery Deaver Interviewed on BBC Radio 5
Links:
Jeffery Deaver Official site
Jeffery Deaver Facebook
Project X Twitter page
Reserve copy of Project X on Amazon.co.uk
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