Read: "Carte Blache" by Jeffrey Deaver

Read: Carte Blanche by Jeffrey Deaver, 2011, 9781451620696.

Deaver is a good dude. I spoke very, very briefly with him when he was at Muskego.  Later in the week I sent him an email thanking him for coming to the event and responded back.  At Bouchercon I spoke to Raymond Benson who said he still gets a lot of fan mail regarding the Bond novels he wrote.

I've at least one Fleming novels, Dr. No, and a 2-3 Gardner ones.

The novel opens in Serbia with a 35-years-old Bond surveilling a roadside restaurant.  Bond's assignment happens after a signals intercept warned of thousands of deaths that would threaten British interests.  Bond chases the bad guy.  Bad guy gets away.  Bond goes back to London.  Bond finds connection to UK after bad guy's getaway helicopter tracked there.  Bond finds link to massive company specializing in refuse.  Deaver simultaneously follows Bad Guy and Refuse Owner. 

Bond has to liaise with domestic Brit intelligence.  Bond chafes under different rules.  Bond is sneaky.  Government and bureaucratic rivalries cause Bond grief.  Bond escapes near death.  Bond is hot for co-worker.

Bond follows Bad Guy and Refuse to Middle East (UAE? I do not recall).  Bond escapes near death.  Felix Leiter escapes near death.  Leiter's employee escapes near escape. Bond finds more clues to the attack's goal and method.

Bond follows Bad Guy and Refuse to South Africa.  Bond liases with SA cop lady.  Cop Lady dislikes Bond.  Bond pretends to be Afrikaaner mercenary and proposes body disposal with Refuse.  Refuse gets sexually excited over death and waste. Bond makes out with Brit Gal who runs a food aid operation in Africa.  Bond has to figure out what the attack will be.  The clock is ticking to the Friday countdown.  Disaster averted!  Refuse killed.  Oh, wait!  That disaster was a ruse.  Real disaster coming.  Disaster averted.  Bad Guy killed.  Brit Gal was in league with bad guy and Brit rendition team scoops her up.  Bond goes home thinking he is unable to find a gal to fit his work.

Comments:
1.  Book Bond versus film Bond.  The latest movie Bonds have been toned down.  This Bond is contemporary.  He was in the Naval Reserve, fought in Afghanistan, got a job in intelligence, was recruited into the O Division.  I don't know enough of the Bond history to say how
2.  Bond's smart phone is very smart.  The phone has all sorts of encryptions and fancy doo-dads that allow super sneaky surveillance. 
3.  Walther PPS in .40 love.
4.  Car love with a Bentley Continental GT, Mini, E-Type and Subaru. Promo photos had Deaver posing with a Bentley.
5.  Cape Town geography love.  I wonder what Roger Smith thought of this novel's setting.
6.  Bond drinks a lot of Crown Royal.  Bond drinks so much Crown Royal you wonder if the publisher was taking advertising dollars.
7.  I liked the book.
8.  Subplot involving Bond's parents who died when he was 11.