Nobody Lives Forever
By John Gardner
Ladies and Gentlemen, John Gardner, the author who loves the double agent. The barest outline of this book are still in my memory. On the plus side Gardner adhears a bit more to the Ian Flemming style of story with the book taking place, mostly, in Austria and Florida. No heading off to multiple locations in this one.
The plot is mostly about SPECTRE trying to kill Bond. Their search for him and their goal of bringing his head on a silver charger to present to the leader Tamil Rahmani, who is suffering from spinal cancer caused by his parachuting accident escaping from Bond at the end of the last book. Bond, on leave in mainland Europe, saves Sukie aka Susan from two thugs attacking her. She is a principessa whose husband died. She's kinda like Anna Nicole Smith.
Later her friend "Nannie" arrives. She is the head of a female bodyguard unit. NUB. To get to Bond, SPECTRE has kidnapped May (Bond's housekeeper) and Moneypenny. Bond follows them to Austria and on to Florida. In Florida, by Key West, Bond is finally captured and held prisoner. Instead of just killing him the bad guys set up a guillotine to chop off his head. Of course Bond is able to escape at the last second, chops off Nannie's arms, saves May and Moneypenny. The Navy comes to the rescue and mops up the rest.
Oh why did Bond chop of Nannie's arms you ask? Isn't she Sukie's friend? Well enter John Gardner plot twists. Nannie works for SPECTRE. The guy holding May and Moneypenny is the Rome agent for MI6 but also a double for the KGB and SMERSH. Reading these books can be more like a mystery novel. Let's find out who the double agent in this book is!
Don't worry about Bond's sex life. He beds Nannie and spends 3 weeks recovering from the ordeal with Sukie, if you know what I mean. The action sequence at the end was exciting. The part where he breaks into the clinic holding May and Moneypenny stuck in my memory so there's that. Overall if you have a couple of days you want to fill with some action, then pick up a John Gardner 007 book. Don't worry if you read them out of order it won't matter.
