Customer Reviews

Doubleshot

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Doubleshot is another excellent addition to the Bond canon as possibly one of Benson's strongest entries. For one thing, as with the last entry High Time to Kill, Doubleshot initially makes a departure from the traditional Bond formula. The book begins with our favorite agent operating at less than his full capacity. Benson's depiction of Bond is an absolute contrast with the agile, strong figure that he first described in the opening chapter of Zero Minus Ten.

Throughout the narrative, the author sprinkles his tale with echoing recalls from Ian Fleming's literary Bond and some elements of the Bond films. However, for the purists, this is the literary Bond and not his celluloid counterpart. Benson has received some criticism for making his novels "too much like a screenplay," however, I think that by carefully adding a few cinematic surroundings, he makes an easy introduction to the literary Bond for casual fans and those that are not fully aquatinted with Fleming's work.

As this is his fourth original novel, Benson has firmly set his own style. He is more comfortable with his story telling ability and his characterizations are more daring. This book contains very violent actions conducted by some of Benson's most ruthless creations. Domingo Espada and Margareta Piel are two of the most twisted and sadistic villains Bond has ever encountered. As with the Skin 17 plot element in High Time to Kill, the Bond doppleganger also works well in the story in spite of the fact that this plot device seems more like a Bond rip-off than genuine 007. I initially had my doubts about a double 007, however Benson makes it work and allows the reader to enjoy his story for the fantasy and escapism that Bond novels are.

Although some readers may not bother with such details, Benson pays attention to the technical aspects of his books while remaining faithful to the basic elements of Ian Fleming's world. One case in point is Bond's armament. Benson realistically balances Bond's use of the trusty Walther PPK with a more serious combat handgun, the Walther P99. By recognizing that Bond is a professional operator, he equips Bond with a professional's gear, all the way down to real world custom-made holsters for Bond's .40 caliber P99.

I hope other readers find the same enjoyment I found in this book. It is a fast paced and engaging story. With excellent characters, including Benson's best Bond girl(s) and an interesting plot, Raymond Benson assures us that, even in the 21st century, there's still plenty of "Sex, Sadism, and Snobbery" to go around.

In his fourth contribution to the James Bond series, Raymond Benson shows us a much too human James Bond, clearly a man who should not be out on a job for HMSS in his current state. While far better and more potent than the pretty Bond of the 80s, Doubleshot's Bond is frighteningly gullible, if not flat out naive. These traits are NOT demonstrated in Benson's earlier Bond works which are must-reads for all (Zero Minus Ten, The Facts of Death, High Time to Kill). Some of the supporting cast are just plain silly, as well. Doubleshot reads a little too fast, and the plot could use some more twists and complexity. Readers learn more about The Union, a more realistic version of Fleming's SPECTRE that first reared its head in High Time to Kill, and as expected, several of its deadly operatives meet their demises. Simply stated, the plot is too predictable (aren't all Bond novels?), but even more than the previous stories. There are fewer outrageous gadgets, which is a tremendous improvement, however. Fancy toys are for the movies. This is an easy read, one that might appeal more to teenagers than those of us who have read Fleming. Still, quite enjoyable. Benson has proven to be a worthy successor to Fleming, Amis and Gardner.

I'm a real big James Bond fan, I believe I've read them all, and unfortunately I rank this one near the bottom. Benson is a decent writer and "High Time To Kill" was entertaining, but this was just a poor effort. One problem with "Doubleshot" is that it's written as a mystery, not a spy novel, and the "surprise ending" was way too obvious and annoying. James Bond is mainly portrayed as a clumsy bumbler, and this is a bit hard to take for us Bond fanatics. Hopefully Benson will do better next time.

Any time I pick up a new James Bond novel, I still get that little twinge of excitement I got when I first started reading Fleming's Bond novels some 30 years ago. However, the thrill just doesn't linger like it used to. Raymond Benson has proven with his previous novels that he can stir up a fairly decent plot for a Bond novel; but he also tends to be clumsy in their execution, and this is exhibited more in DOUBLESHOT than perhaps any of his others. Even after several practice rounds, Benson allows his prose to stutter and stumble along, displaying no more flair with the English language than an average college creative writing student.

Benson's worst offense (ever) is to have conceived the Taunt twins: easily the lamest, dumbest blondes ever to people the pages of a Bond novel. Their presence taints the entire novel with the stench of amateurism; on their way to a possible rendezvous with gruesome death, these supposed CIA professionals blurt out lines like "Oh, this is going to be fun!" with the abandon of high school cheerleaders on their way to a post-game party. Truly an embarrassment, these characters should never have made their way into the novel, and the editor at Glidrose/Jove ought to be flogged for allowing Benson to indulge himself with them.

The foreshadowings and "subtle" disguises for the obligatory plot twists in DOUBLESHOT are obvious, again pointing to clumsy, inexpert treatment at the author's hands. Slightly elevating the reading experience, the character of Le Gerant--the head of the formidable Union--comes across as a fascinating and strong villain, a worthy successor to Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Auric Goldfinger, and kin.

Whereas HIGH TIME TO KILL showed a lot of promise for upcoming Benson Bond thrillers, DOUBLESHOT is perhaps the weakest of all Benson's yarns, rivaling John Gardner's (frequent) dips into inanity--a disappointing path for James Bond to have taken in recent years.

Doubleshot is the 4th novel of the newest Bond writer, Raymond Benson. It follows after the terrifc High Time to Kill, and continues the trilogy that was started there. A darker tale of suspense and intrigue.

James Bond is recovering after the deadly mission in the Himalayas, but scans show that there is a lesion in his brain. He continuously blacks out and thinks he can see his dead wife, Tracy. Bond may finally losing it. He disregards orders and begins to search the case of Helena Marksbury, who was a Union agant. He asks help for his problems of Dr. Feare, but while with her, he blacks out and wakes up to find her murdered, with him as the prime suspect. He travels to Tangier and goes undercover to hear of a possible Union base in Casablanca. He finds out that someone that looks exactly like him has murdered many people on a British ferry, but the trouble is that he can't prove to anyone that he isn't doing the killings. Bond meets Heidi and Hedy Taunt and explains to them and M that a Domingo Espada is planning something at Gibralter, possibly having to do with peace-talks going on there. Bond and the Taunt sisters travel to Spain to check on Espada on one of his bull-fighting rings. Bond is captured and told how his has been manipulated all along to think he was going crazy and to make him look like he was murdering innocent people. Espada works for the Union, and wants to humiliate bond, kill the the prime ministers at the peace-talks, reclaim Gibralter for Spain and increase the power of the Union. Bond escapes, and meets and kills the person who was impersonating him for the killings. Bond and the Taunt sisters make it to the peace-talks, kill Espada and foil the plans once again for the Union.

Doubleshot is a very different style of a Bond book and may not appeal to all. A must for hardcore fans like myself and others who like to read all about the daring assignments of James Bond, agent 007!

I guess in about another year I'll be writing another bad review for yet another lousy Raymond Benson Bond novel. Yet again Benson has some nice touches here, including Bond's mental torture. But that's nothing compared with the torture Benson has inflicted upon die-hard Bond fans for the past 3 years. With his high school English prose Benson can't even approach John Gardner, let alone Fleming. In this entry Bond does some incredibly stupid things and credibility is stretched even for a Bond story. Do I really need to talk about the story? It's well-researched, more or less, but the writing is so bad, so amateurish, that only my love of Bond can keep me reading. And make no mistake, I will continue to read Bond novels, and most likely I will continue to be severly disappointed as long as Benson is at the helm.

After "High Time To Kill", I thought that Benson had finally clicked on what would make a Bond novel for the 21st Century. High technology, exotic locations, formidable villains, deceit and conspiracy at every turn. That it was the first of a trilogy involving a modern-day SPECTRE, the Union, just made me anticipate "Doubleshot" more. However, the book just left me cold, with none of the energy or the jeopardy of the previous book.

Benson has to virtually cripple Bond by the use of convenient "injuries suffered in the previous adventure" because otherwise we'd never believe for a second that our hero couldn't deal with the pathetic revenge plan of the Union with a wave of his little pinky. The conceit here is that the Union plans to destroy Bond by using a doppelganger of him. Anybody who's seen this cliched plot from the Prisoner's "The Schizoid Man" (which actually, handled this incredibly well) to Star Trek's "The Enemy Within", among others, will cry out, "But that trick NEVER works!"

And indeed, it doesn't. You *know* it can't work. What's worse, the psuedo-Bond is so lightly drawn as to never even present a credible threat to our hero. Bond could beat him sleepwalking - and actually *does*. Heaped on top of that is a villainess who kills those she sleeps with. Hardly original. I won't even mention the twin bimbo CIA agents (well, only one is a bimbo, really, but the dialogue Benson gave her is enough to make me cringe - she's supposed to be a *professional*). The other plot to assassinate the British and Spanish PMs was almost inconsequential. Cliche upon cliche - the foreign contact who gets killed, the taking the place of the double... what was Benson doing, rolling dice and looking elements up on a table?

In short, this registered as hardly a blip in the excitement or originality indicators. I'm giving it an extra star because of all his faults, Benson still describes exotic locales with style and panache. Hopefully the next and final book in the Union confrontation will be better. Benson has proven he can write a good Bond in HTTK. Let's see another one, just like the other one.

This book was definately NOT one of Benson's better efforts. The plot lacked the punch that was evident in his previous books while the author tried to impress the reader with his knowledge of bullfighting and Spanish buzzwords. The twins were a Joke, and the final fight scene left much to be desired. The whole book seemed like a return to the John Gardner days....

High Time was a much more enjoyable book !

Although I have enojoyed Mr Benson's other Bond stories, especially High Time.., I thought this one lacked punch. I could not relate this story to a James Bond type of adventure. Do not get me wrong I enjoyed some of the plot, well maybe the end of the story. I look foward to the next novel, I hope.

I don't know where to begin, there were so many instances in this book where I saw (like one of my reviewing counterparts on this page) blatant thefts from previous Bond stories/movies. It would appear that Mr. Benson's previous life as a Bond Fan Club mogul has affected him to the point he is reliving, without realizing, past experiences...only those experiences are not persoanl life events, they are watching Bond films. The only reason I gave this book two stars was for the diversionary pleasure any Bond book, no matter how shallow, provides. It is worth a read for that reason...but keep your expectations low....