Never Dream of Dying

Raymond Benson continues his string of bracing, true-to-tradition James Bond adventures with Never Dream of Dying. As in his last two outings (High Time to Kill and Doubleshot), Bond is up against the Union, a supersecret international cartel of arms dealers and assassins headed by a satisfyingly diabolical mastermind. All the ingredients are there: solo forays into enemy territory, exotic European locales, brushes with death, high-tech gadgetry, a gorgeous femme fatale, and a hair-raising conclusion featuring plenty of explosions and a deadly race against the clock. Benson, a scholar of the original Ian Fleming series who has written four other original Bond thrillers as well as the novelizations of several Bond movies, gets the tone just right. Bond fans won't be disappointed. --Nicholas H. Allison