''The Man with the Red Tattoo'', first published in 2002, was the sixth and final original novel 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 sc ...

featuring

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., an ...

's character

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 hav ...

. Carrying the Ian Fleming Publications copyright, it was first published in the United Kingdom by

Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette. History Early history The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publishe ...

and in the United States by Putnam. It was later published in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

in 2003. The novel's working title was ''Red Widow Dawn''. After the publication of ''The Man with the Red Tattoo'', Benson wrote the novelisation of ''

Die Another Day ''Die Another Day'' is a 2002 spy film and the twentieth film in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. It was produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and directed by Lee Tamahori. The fourth and final film st ...

'', which was published later in the year. ''Die Another Day'' is considered Benson's final James Bond novel, the following Bond stories being a series of novels about a teenage James Bond in the 1930s by Charlie Higson (see Young Bond), and a trilogy of faux-autobiographies by Samantha Weinberg entitled ''

The Moneypenny Diaries ''The Moneypenny Diaries'' is a series of novels and short stories chronicling the life of Miss Moneypenny, M's personal secretary in Ian Fleming's James Bond series; it is considered an official spin-off of the Bond books. The diaries are penned ...

'', focusing on

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 ...

. On 28 August 2005 Ian Fleming Publications confirmed that it was planning to publish a one-off adult Bond novel in 2008 to mark the 100th anniversary of Ian Fleming's birth. In July 2007 it was confirmed that the book had been completed by

Sebastian Faulks Sebastian Charles Faulks (born 20 April 1953) is a British novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He is best known for his historical novels set in France – ''The Girl at the Lion d'Or'', '' Birdsong'' and '' Charlotte Gray''. He has also pub ...

, titled '' Devil May Care''. Benson at one time had plans to release a collection of short Bond stories, but after abruptly announcing his retirement in early 2003 from writing Bond novels, the project was never pursued. Not counting novelisations, ''The Man with the Red Tattoo'' marks the 35th original James Bond novel (including short story collections) since Ian Fleming introduced the character nearly 50 years earlier.

Plot introduction

On a flight from

to the United Kingdom, a young Japanese woman dies of a mysterious illness. The illness is a mutated version of the

West Nile virus West Nile virus (WNV) is a single-stranded RNA virus that causes West Nile fever. It is a member of the family '' Flaviviridae'', from the genus '' Flavivirus'', which also contains the Zika virus, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus. The v ...

. James Bond finds out that not only was she the daughter of an important Japanese businessman, her entire family is also dead. James Bond travels to Japan in search of the killer. Here Bond reunites with his longtime friend

Tiger Tanaka 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 peop ...

, who introduces him to a female Japanese agent who is later killed by the mutant virus.

Publication history

* UK first hardback edition: 2 May 2002

* US first hardback edition: 6 June 2002 Putnam * UK first paperback edition: 9 June 2003

Coronet Books Coronet Books was established in 1966 as the paperback imprint of Hodder & Stoughton. The imprint was closed in 2004 but then relaunched in 2010, publishing fiction and non-fiction in hardback and paperback, including works by Chris Ryan, Lorna B ...

* US first paperback edition: May 2003

Jove Books Jove Books, formerly known as Pyramid Books, is an American paperback and eBook publishing imprint, founded as an independent paperback house in 1949 by Almat Magazine Publishers (Alfred R. Plaine and Matthew Huttner). The company was sold to ...

References

External links

Official Japanese 007 museum website

CBn ''The Man With The Red Tattoo'' Review

CBn Raymond Benson Interview, Part III

"Her Majesty's Secret Servant: Return of the Gaijin" (Michael Reed reviews ''The Man with the Red Tattoo'')
{{DEFAULTSORT:Man With The Red Tattoo 2002 British novels James Bond books Novels by Raymond Benson Hodder & Stoughton books Novels set in Japan Japan in non-Japanese culture

Plot introduction

Publication history

See also

References

External links