On Her Majesty's Secret Service, by Ian Fleming, is book 11 of the James Bond series. In this outing, 007 has fallen out of love with his job in the aftermath of Operation Thunderbolt, when arch villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld completely disappeared. While contemplating his future, James finds himself back at the Casino Royale in France and comes across Contessa Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo. They spend an oddly dispassionate night together and Bond doesn't quite know what to make of this troubled woman - who, it turns out, is the daughter of Draco, the head of Union Corse - a Corsican crime organisation. Draco and Bond has a measure of respect for each other, to the extent that Draco suggests to Bond that he marries Tracy, but that's not on Bond's radar! Some time later, Bond gets a lead on Blofeld and is sent, undercover, to Switzerland to see if Blofeld has resurfaced. Not only is it Blofeld, but Bond discovers that he is working on a plot involving biological warfare, and must be stopped. But Bond's cover is blown and he barely escapes with his life down the mountain where, by a fortuitous stroke of luck, he bumps into Tracy once again, who helps him get to safety. After which, he surprises himself by proposing to her. They plan to marry as soon as Bond has resolved the Blofeld crisis - for which he recruits the help of Tracy's father. They foil the evil plot, but Blofeld escapes again, and manages to inflict a tragic revenge on Bond. This is an entertaining outing for Bond and I enjoyed it more than some of the previous books. It's nice to see a softer side to everyone's favourite spy, but there are still passages that troubled me about his attitude to women in general. It is a novel of its time I suppose and if you just take it as breathtaking, action-packed adventure, then you will enjoy it. The audio edition is narrated by David Tennant who does a great job, as you would expect!
My STAR rating: THREE.
Length: 368 print pages.
Price I paid: £4.00
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, ebook.
