Carte Blanche (novel)
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''Carte Blanche'' is a
James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
novel written by
Jeffery Deaver Jeffery Deaver (born May 6, 1950) is an American mystery and crime writer. He has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a J.D. degree from Fordham University and originally started working as a journalist. He later ...
. Commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications, it was published in the United Kingdom by
Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint (trade name), imprint of Hachette (publisher), Hachette. History Early history The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs ...
on 26 May 2011 and was released in the United States by
Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
on 14 June 2011. ''Carte Blanche'' is the thirty-seventh original James Bond novel and the first to have a contemporary setting since '' The Man with the Red Tattoo'' by
Raymond Benson Raymond Benson (born September 6, 1955) is an American author best known for being the author of the James Bond novels from 1997 to 2003. Benson was born in Midland, Texas and graduated from Permian High School in Odessa in 1973. In primary scho ...
was published in 2002. The title and cover artwork were unveiled on 17 January 2011, at a special launch event at the InterContinental Hotel in
Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
.


Background

''Carte Blanche'' updates James Bond's backstory to fit with the 21st century setting. Jeffery Deaver has stated that his James Bond will have been born in 1979, making him a veteran of the war in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
( Operation Herrick) instead of a
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
veteran and
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
secret agent as originally conceived by creator
Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...
.


Plot

Set in mid-2011, the story takes place over the course of a week. James Bond is a former
Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...
officer who has recently joined the Overseas Development Group – a covert operational unit of British security under the control of the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ministries of fore ...
tasked "to identify and eliminate threats to the country by extraordinary means." Bond is employed within the 00 Section of the Operations Branch. He starts his assignment on the outskirts of
Novi Sad Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pan ...
in
Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
where an Irish
sapper A sapper, also called a pioneer (military), pioneer or combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefie ...
-turned-enforcer named Niall Dunne is planning to derail a train carrying 300 kilograms of methyl isocyanate, dumping it into the
Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
. Bond is able to prevent the catastrophe by derailing the train himself at a much safer place along the line. He is unable to detain Dunne, who kills Bond's Serbian contacts in the course of his escape. Using what little intelligence Bond was able to gather from the operation in Serbia, the ODG is able to establish a connection to Green Way International, a waste disposal consortium contracted to demolish an army base in March. Because Bond is not authorized to act on British soil, he is forced to work with a domestic security agent named Percy Osborne-Smith. The two men clash over the interpretation of the intelligence, prompting Bond to manipulate Osborne-Smith into pursuing a lead Bond knows to be false, and allowing him to investigate the March army base on his own. While exploring the base hospital, he is sealed inside by Niall Dunne, who intends to kill him by bringing the hospital down in a controlled demolition. Bond escapes by improvising an explosive device. Bond turns his attention to Green Way International, led by the enigmatic Severan Hydt. The Dutch-born Hydt is a "
rag-and-bone man A rag-and-bone man or ragpicker (UK English) or ragman, old-clothesman, junkman, or junk dealer (US English), also called a bone-grubber, bone-picker, chiffonnier, rag-gatherer, bag board, or totter, collects unwanted household items and sells t ...
", who made his fortune in the disposal of waste. He has an intense fascination with death, which is strongly implied to be a sexual fetish. The Overseas Development Group authorize Bond to investigate Hydt when intelligence surfaces suggesting he is also known as 'Noah' and a key player in the derailment in Serbia, which is believed to be a prelude to a much bigger attack that will affect British interests. Bond gets wind of a second attack, to occur later in the week, killing up to one hundred people. He tracks Hydt to
Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
and, with the help of
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
officer Felix Leiter, eavesdrops on a conversation with one of Hydt's senior researchers. Concerned that the attack is imminent, Bond attempts to anticipate Hydt's next move and is on the verge of evacuating a crowded museum when he realises that Hydt is there for an exhibit of the bodies of 90 tribal nomads who were killed a millennium ago. Aborting his planned evacuation, Bond returns to Hydt's facility to find that Leiter has been attacked by an unknown assailant and a local CIA asset has been murdered. Hydt leaves Dubai for
Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
, with Bond following closely. Once inside South Africa, he meets Bheka Jordaan, a local police operative. Bond is able to get close to Hydt by posing as a
Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
-based
mercenary A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any o ...
, and fuels Hydt's fixation with death by promising him access to mass graves across the African continent. Hydt is taken by Bond's proposal of exhuming the bodies and recycling them into consumer products such as building materials, and gradually welcomes him into his inner circle. Bond attends a fundraiser for the International Organization Against Hunger with Hydt, where he meets Felicity Willing, the charity's spokesperson. After helping Willing deliver the left-over food from the fundraiser to a distribution centre, the two become lovers. Using his cover, Bond is able to infiltrate Hydt's operations in South Africa. His relationship with Bheka Jordaan sours, particularly when he encounters the assailant who attacked Leiter in Dubai: the brother of one of his contacts who was killed in Serbia. As the deadline for the attack – known as Gehenna (derived from the Hebrew word for Hell) – approaches, the Overseas Development Group is ordered to pull Bond out of South Africa and send him to Afghanistan as
Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...
believes the attack will happen there as they can see no connection between Hydt and Gehenna. M is not convinced and manages to keep Bond in South Africa, but the future of the agency depends on his being correct in suspecting Hydt. On the day of the Gehenna attacks, Bond deduces that the target is somewhere in
York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
, but his report is ignored by Osborne-Smith, who believes it is aimed at a security conference in London. Bond manages to access Hydt's research and development facility, where he uncovers plans for a weapon developed by Serbia known as "the Cutter", which fires razor-sharp shards of titanium at hypervelocity. Hydt has been using his operations to steal sensitive information, from which he has acquired the blueprints to the Cutter. Bond realised that the derailment in Serbia was a
false flag A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misr ...
operation: its intention was not to drop methyl isocyanate into the Danube, but to allow Niall Dunne the opportunity to steal scrap metal from the train for use in the prototype Cutter. Hydt was employed by an American
pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...
corporation to detonate a Cutter at a university in York, killing a cancer researcher on the verge of a breakthrough that would bankrupt the pharmaceutical corporation. Misinformation fed to a Hungarian newspaper would suggest the attack was aimed at a fellow lecturer who was a vocal opponent of the Serbian government. With the help of Hydt's personal assistant, Bond is able to stop the attack. Hydt is arrested, but Dunne escapes and shoots his employer at long range. Bond is uncomfortable with the conclusion, feeling that there are too many loose ends at hand. Research shows that the ODG had been misled, and their intelligence misinterpreted; Severan Hydt was never known as Noah. Rather, it is an acronym for the National Organisation Against Hunger, which recently expanded to provide food aid on an international scale. Niall Dunne is an associate of Felicity Willing, whose organisation has expanded to the point where she directly controls one-third of all food aid arriving in Africa. She intends to use this power to strategically distribute food throughout east Africa, giving the Sudanese government a pretext to go to war with rebels and prevent Southern Sudan from seceding. She set Dunne up in Hydt's organization so he could help her put the authorities on his trail, providing the distraction she needed to put her plan into action. Bond lures Willing into a trap at an abandoned inn where she confesses the plot. Niall Dunne re-appears, attacking the party before Bond and Bheka Jordaan shoot and kill him. Willing is taken to a black site after
MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
spread stories suggesting she was
embezzling Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...
from her own charity. A subplot throughout the novel involves Bond's investigations into a
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
operation code-named "Steel Cartridge". Bond believes that his father was a spy for the United Kingdom during the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, and that he was killed by Russian agents. Further evidence suggests that Steel Cartridge was a clean-up operation, with the Russians assassinating their own agents who had infiltrated Western intelligence organisations. The suggestion that his father was a traitor does not sit well with Bond, until he unearths further evidence that shows the Russians carried out a Steel Cartridge assassination on a Western spy-hunter who was dangerously close to identifying
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
moles – his mother, Monique Delacroix Bond.


Characters

''Carte Blanche'' features several recurring characters from the Fleming novels, however, they all have updated backstories in order to fit in with the contemporary setting: *
James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
: Born in 1979, Bond is a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan (Operation Herrick). He drives a Bentley Continental GT, a brand Fleming used throughout his novels. Unlike the Fleming character (and despite the book's smoke design motif), James Bond is a ''former'' smoker. * M: The head of the Overseas Development Group returned to being a man after being a woman (
Barbara Mawdsley M is a codename held by a number of fictional characters in Ian Fleming's James Bond (literary character), James Bond book and James Bond filmography, film series; the characters are the current or past Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service ...
) throughout
Raymond Benson Raymond Benson (born September 6, 1955) is an American author best known for being the author of the James Bond novels from 1997 to 2003. Benson was born in Midland, Texas and graduated from Permian High School in Odessa in 1973. In primary scho ...
's tenure. He is referred to as "Miles" by two intelligence officers, implying that he is Miles Messervy, as Fleming identified M in his novels. * Severan Hydt: The Dutch-born owner of Green Way International, a waste disposal corporation. He has an obsession with death that borders on sexual fetishisation, and plans to detonate a dangerous weapon in a British university to kill a cancer researcher. * Niall Dunne: A former Army sapper turned enforcer who serves as Hydt's trusted confidant and the brains behind his plan. From Belfast, he has a fascination with machines, and tends to view the world in a cool, dispassionate manner. * Felicity Willing: The spokeswoman for the International Organisation Against Hunger, which controls one-third of all food aid arriving in Africa. Willing attempts to use her position to distribute food in a way that would give the Sudanese government a pretext to go to war with rebels in the south. * Bheka Jordaan: A member of the South African Police Service and an ally of Bond's. She is aware of the nature of his work and refuses to take part in it unless Bond can give her a legal reason to intervene. Her stubborn insistence on obeying protocol stems from a high-profile investigation she conducted into corruption in the South African police forces. * Jessica Barnes: Hydt head of PR and Advertising. Also his lover, an older woman, he has a fascination with her ageing. *
Miss Moneypenny Miss Moneypenny, later assigned the first names of Eve or Jane, is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and films. She is secretary to M (James Bond), M, who is Bond's superior officer and head of the British Secret Intelligence Serv ...
: M's personal secretary is in her mid-30s. * Ophelia "Philly" Maidenstone: MI6's liaison officer to the Overseas Development Group. Bond finds her invaluable, particularly for her ability to piece together intelligence. He finds they share many common interests, and considers pursuing a relationship with her, once he has allowed her time to recover from a broken engagement. * Gregory Lamb: An MI6 officer stationed in Cape Town, but with jurisdiction over the entire African continent. Many in London consider him dangerous and unbridled and advise that he should be avoided if possible. Lamb ingratiates himself into Bond's operation, and Bond surmises that he is less dangerous than he is cowardly. * Percy Osborne-Smith: An agent with Division Three, an offshoot of MI5. Osborne-Smith likes to be the one leading investigations so that he may take the credit for a successful operation. His ambitions lead him to shut down central London at the height of a security conference, ignoring intelligence from Bond that suggests the attack will take place in York. * Felix Leiter: Bond's
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
counterpart and ally who aids him in tracking Severan Hydt in Dubai. * Nicholas Rathko: A Serbian operative and former member of Arkhan's Tigers with a vendetta against Bond. His younger brother was assisting Bond in Serbia before being captured and tortured by Niall Dunne. Rathko wants revenge against Bond for leaving his brother to die while chasing Dunne rather than taking him to a hospital. * Sanu Hirani: The head of the Overseas Development Group's
Q Branch Q is a fictional character in the James Bond films and film novelisations. Q (standing for Quartermaster), like M, is a job title rather than a name. He is the head of Q Branch (or later Q Division), the fictional research and development divisi ...
. He is able to rapidly improvise and modify field equipment for Bond (at the drop of a hat) and claims he does not need to sleep. His office is described as being plastered with pictures of Indian cricketers. The novel refers to this character as " Q" at least once, implying that in Deaver's continuity Major Boothroyd (the Q of Fleming's Bond) is not the quartermaster of Q Branch. This is the only case of an ongoing Fleming character being replaced by Deaver. *
Mary Goodnight This is a list of allies of ''James Bond'' who appear throughout the film series and novels. MI6 M M is a Rear Admiral of the Royal Navy, and the head of the Secret Intelligence Service. Fleming based the character on a number of people ...
: The secretary to the 00 Section will be 21 years old. Goodnight has not been featured in a Bond novel since Fleming's '' The Man with the Golden Gun'' (1965); she had references in several previous Fleming novels. In the book, Deaver indicates that Goodnight resembles actress
Kate Winslet Kate Elizabeth Winslet (; born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. Known for her work in independent films, particularly period dramas, and for her portrayals of headstrong and complicated women, she has received numerous accolades, incl ...
. *
May Maxwell Mary "May" Maxwell (née Bolles; born 14 January 1870 in Englewood, New Jersey; died 1 March 1940 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) was an early American member of the Baháʼí Faith. Early life Mary Ellis Bolles was born to John Bolles and Mary ...
: Bond's loyal and elderly Scottish housekeeper. Initial reports suggested she would be re-imagined as Indian or Pakistani maidservant, but this change was later applied to Sanu Hirani, the head of Q Branch. The last name "Maxwell" is newly established, as Fleming never assigned a last name to the character.


Launch event

As many details as possible regarding James Bond's adventures in ''Carte Blanche'' were kept under wraps by Ian Fleming Publications. The buzz generated around the book culminated in an invite-only event at
St. Pancras Station St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It i ...
in London on 25 May 2011. Here Deaver made his grand entrance in a Carte Blanche labelled Bentley, accompanied by stunt woman, model and actress Chesca Miles. Royal Marine Commandos abseiled from the roof of the elaborate station to hand Deaver a copy of the novel as he unveiled the book to the world's press.


See also

*
Outline of James Bond The following Outline (list), outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to James Bond: James Bond (literary character), James Bond is a fictional character created in 1953 by the journalist and writer Ian Fleming, who featured him i ...


References


External links


007CarteBlanche
– Official Twitter feed for ''Carte Blanche''.
JefferyDeaver.com
– Jeffery Deaver's official website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Carte Blanche (Novel) 2011 British novels James Bond books Novels by Jeffery Deaver Hodder & Stoughton books