The Hero: James Bond; The Bond Girl: Cedar Leiter; The Villain: Marcus Bismaquer; Supporting Characters: Nina Bismaquer, Mike Hazzard, Luxor; Locations Covered: London, New York, Texas (Amarillo), Colorado (NORAD), Washington D.C.; First Published: 1982

For Special Services is John Gardner`s second Bond effort, and only slightly better than his first one, License Renewed.

It starts off with 007 being sent to investigate possible leads into the re-emergence of SPECTRE. A foiled hijacking provides clues that lead Bond to suspect that SPECTRE is alive,well, and ready to rear it`s ugly, vicious head on the world political scene.

007 is joined by his American counterpart, Cedar Leiter, Felix Leiter`s voluptous daughter, and newly recruited CIA operative. Together, they pose as art afficianodoes to sniff out MI6`s chief suspect in the hijacking, Markus Bismaquer.

Many clues lead to Markus Bismaquer as possibly being the new head of SPECTRE, so Bond and Cedar head to New York to act as bait and see whether Markus goes for it. And he does. Bond and Leiter are barely in New York five minutes before they get into a fist/knife fight with some goons sent by Markus. Later, in Washington D.C., Bond and Cedar are trapped in a crashing, careening elevator.

The rest of the story is simple, formulaic, and sometimes boring. There`s the requisite girls that throw themselves at Bond(including Felix`s daughter) and the huge, spacial headquarters/mansino of the main villian. Gardner even throws in a completely pointless action sequence involving a race track derby.

Gardner does throw in a few twists though. Nena, Markus`s wife, only has one breast. Bond, apparently so desperate for sex, and weary of having to turn down Cedar`s propositions, goes for it. Nena has needs herself, since her husband is her husband in name only (he`s got the hots for 007- you figure the rest).

The rest of the story is fairly rote. There seems to be little investigating done by 007 in this novel. It`s mostly a collection of fight scenes and it is indeed action packed. But i`d rather see a novel that takes it`s time to develop it`s characters, flesh out it`s plot, and give us rich detail about the locations. For Special Services, is…well, nothing special.

AFTERWORD

In 1941 Ian Fleming accompanied Admiral Godfrey to the United States for the purpose of establishing relations with the American Secret Service organizations. In New York Fleming met Sir William Stephenson, “the quiet Canadian”, who became a lifelong friend. Stephenson allowed Fleming to take part in a clandestine operation against a Japanese cipher expert who had an office in Rockefeller Center. Fleming later embellished this story and used it in his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale (1953).

Stephenson also introduced Fleming to General William Donovan, who had just been appointed coordinator of information, a post which eventually evolved into the chairmanship of the Office Of Strategic Services and then of the Central Intelligence Agency. At Donovan`s request Fleming wrote a lengthy memorandum describing the structure and functions of a secret service organization. This memorandum later became part of the charter of the OSS and, thus, of the CIA. In appreciation, Donovan presented Fleming with a .38 Police Positive Colt revolver inscribed “For Special Services”.–Joan DelFattore, University of Delaware.