Bond is back on the paperback after 40 years

BOND WITH THE BEST: Devil May Care is a great way of staying on the agent's trail.

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New Delhi: World's most beloved spy, agent 007, is on his next mission and this time it's on paper. This week we review the latest Bond book, which literally boasts of his ‘devil may care’ attitude.

James Bond is back on the paperback after 40 long years with Sebastian Faulkes' Devil May Care. The book was launched on Ian Flemming's birth anniversary in London in signature Bond style with oodles of action, drama and glamour.

Just like in Faulkes's first attempt at 007's adventures, in Devil May Care the suave Mr Bond is on an introspective sabbatical when he is called in by his boss M for, a special mission.

This time he is pitted against a certain Dr Julius Gorner, who apart from having a monkey paw for a left hand, nurtures immense hatred for the British. Enter Scarlett, a typical Bond girl who succeeds in fooling 007 on more than one occasion.

With gripping sub plots, the whodunit style and fast paced writing, Faulkes not only manages to retain the Fleming flavour but the reader's enthusiasm as well. The action sequences are described well enough for you to almost picture Bond grinding his teeth in pain as the villain puts his dislocated shoulder in place.

The chase is all the way from Tehran to Stalingrad and then stopping over at Paris with drugs, guns and of course Bond's only weakness – women. And all this is whipped into a snappy read to give the desired effect.

After all, when it's Bond, it's nothing if not exciting! As for the literary rest - devil may care!

Quantum of Solace is the next Bond film but with frequent accidents on the sets it will be sometime before it reaches you. Till then Devil May Care is a great way of staying on the agent's trail, a journey that's every bit like his martini – shaken, not stirred.