Call for the Dead (2003)

By John Le Carre
A story involving Le Carre’s famous hero, George Smiley, the ultimate spy. Set around the same era as the James Bond novels (Cold War), but so much more interesting – probably because George Smiley has much more depth than Bondy, and because it’s a book it doesn’t matter so much that he’s a bit podgy and sweats a lot.

Smiley interviews an MP who’s been accused of having Communist sympathies – and the same man turns up dead the next day, apparently having killed himself after his talk with Smiley. There’s a scandal, and Smiley senses he’s about to be made the sacrificial lamb. Then someone tries to kill him and all sorts of other exciting things happen.

This is spying as I had always imagined it, with people sending each other coded messages on postcards and swapping secret documents in music cases at the theatre. Why is this so much more suspenseful than the shark attacks and voodoo magic of James Bond? Perhaps because it is easier to feel empathy with poor, sad, tired George Smiley.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Live and Let Die (2003)

By Ian Fleming
Good heavens, James Bond has feelings! And, sometimes he is afraid!! While this book is really quite well written, it beats me how anyone saw the huge commercial potential for Bondy – i.e. it didn’t really do a lot for me. It was interesting, though, to see which bits of the book turned up in various movies (not necessarily the same one) and how they updated various aspects of the plot – for example, instead of smuggling gold coins that were part of a pirate’s hoard (the book) they smuggled heroin or cocaine or something (the movies). Also, there was no Q or fancy gizmos in the book, and very few smart one-liners from Bond.

If you’re interested in the plot (such as it is), Bond gets sent to the US to help investigate the flood of antique gold coins appearing on the market. He and his pal Felix Leiter fall foul of “Mr Big” who has set himself up as an underworld voodoo master up in Harlem. Mr Big’s chick, Solitaire, escapes with Bondy to Florida and after this there’s a lot of violence involving sharks and barracudas. I won’t ruin it completely by telling you everything, but rest assured Bond comes out of it OK, although slightly more injured than he appears to be in the films.

Rating: 4 out of 10