The Spy Who Loved Me

Well, this was an odd one. A James Bond novel where Bond only appears in the last third as a secondary character. No wonder Fleming didn't want this one filmed!

Written from the point of view of a young woman, Vivienne Michel, a Canadian who finds herself left in charge of a remote motel, the first part of this book reads like a cheap romance novel. Viv's romantic encounters in London, her back story and eventual return to Canada before embarking on a road trip on a Vespa down into America leave you wondering where and when Bond will enter the tale. When he does it's to save our heroine from a fate worse than death at the hands of two hoodlums who have come to “close up” the motel. And still his actions are told from Vivienne's viewpoint, in what amounts to little more than a short story at the end of the novel.

It's a strange exercise for a best selling espionage/thriller writer to take with his most famous creation. Maybe Fleming was getting bored and wanted to shake things up. Whatever the case it's the least essential work in the Bond canon and Fleming is not all that convincing as the voice of a young woman. It's serviceable and the action towards the end sort of makes up for the novel's shortcomings, but I don't think it's one I'll be revisiting.