Never Send Flowers (James Bond Series)

by John Gardner

Overview

In different corners of the world, four high-profile figures are assassinated in less than a week. Nobody claims responsibility, and nobody links the deaths. But one thing is certain: each victim has been stalked, sought out and killed with care and preparation. Then a sinister connection is established: a single, blood-tipped rose is sent to each funeral. When MI5 come to MI6 to ask for help M brings in his best. At first, a weekend abroad seems tempting to James Bond, especially when he's paired with gorgeous Swiss intelligence officer Flicka von Grusse. But this is a perilous assignment that starts with the mysterious actor David Dragonpol and leads them on a harrowing manhunt through Athens, Milan and Paris . . . and towards an explosive climax. John Gardner's formidable storytelling skills shine in Never Send Flowers, his thirteenth James Bond novel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781906772444
Publisher:	Ian Fleming Publications
Publication date:	09/01/2014
Series:	James Bond Series
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	321
Sales rank:	875,188
File size:	343 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

After Colonel Sun (1968) by Kingsley Amis, John Gardner was the next writer to be asked to write further adventures of James Bond. He wrote, like Fleming, fourteen Bond books, plus novelisations of the films GoldenEye and Licence to Kill, from 1981 to 1996. Before becoming an author of fiction in the early 1960s John Gardner was variously a stage magician, a Royal Marine officer, a journalist and, for a short time, a priest in the Church of England. 'Probably the biggest mistake I ever made,' he says. 'I confused the desire to please my father with a vocation which I soon found I did not have.' In all, Gardner had fifty-five novels to his credit - many of them bestsellers. John Gardner died in 2007.For more information about John Gardner and his non-Bond works, visit his website.

Editorial Reviews

This sketchy detective story requires a knowledge of James Bond movies rather than Ian Fleming novels, which may explain why it reads like a rough draft for a screenplay. In Gardner's 12th 007 book (after Death Is Forever ), the ageless agent from Her Majesty's Secret Service is sent to Switzerland to investigate the murder of MI5 operative Laura March. Teaming up with Swiss agent Flica von Gruss, he discovers that March's brother was a serial killer and that her ex-lover was legendary English actor David Dragonpol, now retired and living in a fairy-tale castle on the Rhine. Dragonpol's sister, Maeve Horton, proves to be the link between March's death and four recent assassinations; a Bleeding Heart rose bred by Horton appeared at the funeral of each of the victims, March included. Bond and von Gruss pursue the case to Dragonpol's castle in Germany, where the usual fiendish plot is uncovered and ultimately resolved in the traditional Bond manner. This light, entertaining read doesn't pretend to be anything more than another episode in what has turned into a never-ending adventure. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This is Gardner's eleventh James Bond novel, and by now he has the formula down pat. There's the usual technological tools of the trade, lots of violence, chase scenes, and the young, beautiful helpmate. This time it's one Flicka von Grusse, "a sexual knock-out, but on her own terms. The kind of woman who got exactly what she wanted, when she wanted it." Bond and von Grusse are assigned to investigate the murder of British Security Service's Laura March, killed in Switzerland with a poison pellet from an air rifle. A white rose with one blood-red petal and an ambiguous note wired to the stem, found at March's funeral, was the same kind found among the wreaths at the funerals of four prominent people assassinated within a week. Bond and von Grusse uncover a love affair between March and David Dragonpol, a famous actor living in a castle on the Rhine after his retirement from the stage and screen; they also find the same kind of rose growing in the castle's garden. What follows is the usual multicountry chase, this one ending in the EuroDisney theme park outside Paris. Gardner seems to be running out of plots, but nevertheless there's always enough 007 fans to welcome one more James Bond deed of derring-do.

George Cohen