This was definitely an enjoyable read. It gave me the flavor of the original Ian Fleming series but with the style of author Faulks. There also seemed to be a hint of more of James Bond's psychology being presented but never too much. This reminds an action story and a fairly good one at that. We are taken back to a time in the early 1960's when the CIA and the British secret service are not all that trusting of each other. This is the bothersome early years of the Vietnam War in which America fights on alone with no allies. And the demon heroin and drug addiction is being used to wreck the moral and physical strength of a nation by a crazed sociopath. It is a time before 911 and Bin Laden. More a time of torturers who learned their bloody trade in the years of War War II and the post-colonial collapse of England and France.
There are fast cars and chases with interesting twists and turns in the plot that make this smooth sailing. The plot locations are excellent and the food and drink and other references are fun and send one to your foreign language dictionary. Don't forget the wild machines (really tame and realistic) and the final scenes of fighting and mayhem which always were first-rate in the James Bond books. I think you will find this story up to that standard. Give it a whirl and hope for more books in the series. Give the younger readers a taste of what we enjoyed in our youth before the fantastic excesses of the Bond movie industry.

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