007 is back.

It’s been awhile since I’ve delved into a James Bond story, and it was definitely becoming an itch that needed to be scratched, so I happily dove into the next novel in the series, Raymond Benson’s High Time to Kill from 1999.

The story finds Bond pursuing a relationship with his personal assistant at the SIS. They’re on holiday together, and both are well aware that when they get back to London, they’ll have to put it on the back burner, perhaps permanently, and when a new assignment comes Bond’s way, all of his attention will be focussed on that.

It seems a UK engineer has developed a malleable skin for aircraft that would allow them to break Mach 7. But someone has stolen it, a dangerous group known as The Union. They’ve stolen it, and whether they use it for themselves or sell it to the highest bidder, Bond has to get it back!

Things are complicated for 007 when the specs for it, encoded on a microdot, are involved in a plane crash in the Himalayas. Bond is assigned to the team to recover it, under the guise of recovering the bodies from the flight, which include a British MP and a US Senator.

Leading the team is Roland Marquis, a rival of Bond since his school days, and as is revealed by the narrative, not someone Bond can be trusted, and perhaps the Union operative embedded in the team.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Bond story without some sex appeal, and in addition to Bond’s personal assistant, Helena, we are introduced to Hope Kendall, a Kiwi doctor, and the only woman in the climbing team.

Benson delivers a fairly tightly crafted tale and I forgot how much I enjoyed his take on the character, honoring what went before as penned by Ian Fleming, but updating it for the close of the 20th century.

I think it takes Bond a little too long to come to the conclusion that Roland is the villain of the piece (but not the only one) considering he has some suspicions about him from the get-go. Hope isn’t written as well as she could be, but to be honest, none of the characters are super-developed, they are all placeholders to move along the story, but it’s an engaging tale nonetheless.

Not quite as sweeping and exotic as the film series, but I would love to see some of this book adapted. The mountain-climbing stuff is great. Considering that his parents were killed in a climbing accident it’s a bit of a shame that none of this is touched on in the book. We don’t often get a glimpse into Bond’s emotional, personal side, but this definitely should have been at least mentioned.

That being said, this was still a fun, fast-paced read.

James Bond will return in the short story Live at Five.