No Deals, Mr. Bond- John Gardner 1987Summary- James Bond was involved in Operation Seahawk. This operation was to get two women to safety. These two women were part of Operation Cream Cake. The point of this operation was to use four young women and one young man to use sex to get the secrets of KGB officers. Something went awry, and the five people had to be pulled out. Everything seemed fine, but five years later two of the women are killed, with their tongues cut out. M calls Bond in and tells him to get the other three members to safety. Bond takes the case, but it is totally unofficial. Bond is on his own with no help from the service.
Bond finds two of the women. However, Bond is captures by a man called Smolin, who was one of the targets of Operation Cream Cake. It turns out that he is a traitor, and offers Bond help. However, Chernov, the Chief Investigating Officer of Department 8, Directorate S, the current incarnation of SMERSH. Also, Bond discovers that one of the members of Cream Cake was working for the KGB all along.
Now, to save M from scandal, Bond has to discover and kill the Cream Cake traitor, and bring Chernov in alive. After facing a ruthless test against four condemned Russians, who are armed and think that killing Bond will save their lives, Bond discovers the traitor and delivers Chernov.
My Grade- B+ The plot of this novel is pretty involved. I'm beginning to see that Gardner likes more complicated plots than Fleming. The only problem with this plot is that it's a little hard to keep track of names. Everybody in this book has at least two of them, since they all need double identities. Despite this, the story is very compelling, and there is plenty of action.
Best Moment- When Bond faces the four condemned men, known as Robinsons, he has to use all of his training, plus a few hidden tricks to stay alive.Back to Novels Page
