Cold door John Gardner

Review of the James Bond novel Cold:

Information:

Title: Cold

Author: John Gardner

Publisher: Coronet Books Hodder and Stoughton

Year of publication: 1996

Place of publication: London

Number of pages: 278

A personal review:

For me this was the first English James Bond Novel. Once I’ve read a Dutch novel, but when I read the correct English book I see that this author has used a lot of more words to express the tension, the fear. And that’s what I like of this novel, there’s a lot of tension in it but sometimes you have an annoying part in it and then you see again a part with a lot of tension in it. And that’s really nice how the author plays with the several parts and how he combines the parts. But for me it seems that there are 2 parts in it. Because in the middle of the book there is a page with the text: Part 2. And on the end of part 1, there is a huge flash-forward. Everything goes really fast. And when part 2 starts there are some problems with the brand-new wife of James bond. The Suisse girl has an accident and later on she dies. But on the end of the book you will understand everything. Now I’m going to summarise the novel. It starts with a message of M, the director of James Bond that there has been an airplane crash in Washington and that Bond has to investigate the case because it’s a suspicious case. M gives him a new name: James Boldman. In Washington he met a friend of him, Sukie Tempesta. She told him that she works with the Tempesta-clan as a cleaning lady but also as an informant for the FBI. It’s a kind of Italian mafia; they are very rich but also very dangerous. Later on he has to go to the crime-scene of the crash. And he receives a lot of information. When he went back to his hotel he receives a telephone with the question if he knows Sukie. James said yes and then the man told him that she’s dead. Her car was blown up. The FBI thinks it’s an action of the Tempesta. The FBI wants that he must go undercover at the Tempesta-clan. Bond agreed and he made the trip to Italy. At the Tempestas he gets a very good treat. During his sleep, the bodyguards have the intention to kill him. But with the help of Toni, a girl of the FBI who works also undercover, he survives it. During this part there is a strange switch. Because it starts with the crash and then from one moment, you don’t hear anything more of the crash. That’s very difficult to follow because you don’t know all the details more of the crash. And you have to know it if you want to understand the part of the crash. But on the end you know everything of the crash. After this operation the FBI brings him back to a secret location where M is waiting for him with the message that he has done this case with a lot of routine. But M has to go, back to England. And then he got kidnapped. Bond wants to get him back and he met a general who is with the Tempestas and he also has M in his possession. But after a long fight he saved M. This is a difficult part to read because they use a lot of technical terms and I don’t know all the technical words of planes and helicopters. But you notice that there’s a lot of tension in it. And then after a few years Bond got a new order of the FBI: He has to stop the Tempestas and their plan called COLD. Their plan is to rule the world. Bond went back to Italy where the FBI and the Italian police are waiting for him. They want that he go back to the villa and that he make the way clear for the rest. So that the rest could arrest the mafia. But the plan doesn’t work. Bond gets caught together with Beatrice. She works as a waitress but she’s actually someone from the FBI. And then the Tempestas told Bond that there’s a wedding between Sukie and a bodyguard. But Sukie was dead. Sukie was also a false person who works with the Tempestas. She has deceived Bond. After the wedding they want to kill Bond and Beatrice but Bond has a special belt with a mayday button. So after he pushed it the FBI and the Italian police invade the building and arrest everything. Bond and Beatrice becomes a couple. But back home the British spy is waiting for him because Bond hasn’t told to the office that he will be working with the FBI for one month. Normally M would say that it is okay. But from now one there is a new chief. It’s a woman and she calls also M. And the book ends when Bond has to go to the office. That’s a weird ending because you want to know if Bond will be punished and how it ends with Beatrice. Maybe it will be in the next Bond book. But it is pity that we don’t know everything.

Some of my favourite lines are:

• General Brutus Clay’s face seemed to be made up of partly-hanging flaps of skin. => You have a nice description of the murderer.

• I think one of the gentlemen needs a little bit of ice; I just might have damaged his marital prospects. => Bond is in a room when suddenly room-service is knocking on the door.

• ‘Then you’ll be in your elements, James, won’t you?’ M let this last sentence in the air. => M told this after Bond got the briefing of his new case what is very dangerous.