Publisher's Weekly Review
James Bond has always been a figure of fantasy and Benson, in his routine fourth Bond novel (after The Facts of Death) wisely keeps him fantastic. An international mercenary terrorist gang called the Union pilfers the British secret formula for Skin 17, the only aircraft material that can withstand a speed of Mach 7. Besides its technological importance, Skin 17 is a triumph for the lagging British military, so spymaster M needs Bond to get it back, and to find the turncoat who helped the Union steal it. The terrorists hide the formula for Skin 17 on a microdot implanted inside the pacemaker of a Chinese national, who dies a few days later when the airplane he's flying in is hijacked and crashes on Kangchenjunga, third-highest mountain of the Himalayas: hence this novel's title. Bond, of course, is dispatched to retrieve the microdot. En route to a blood-filled, ice-encased climax, Agent 007 indulges his old tastes for dangerous women and beautiful cars. Thanks to Q, the violence features some deliciously nasty weapons, including a gadget-laden Jaguar XK8. Benson's prose, including the dialogue, is wooden, but the action he provides is fast and furious and Bond fans will note the narrative scores "a first for Bond... sex at 7,900 meters"Äa high point in a novel that otherwise is middling all the way. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Benson, author of the James Bond Bedside Companion and two 007 novels (Zero Minus Ten, 1997; The Facts of Death, 1998), shows why he was chosen to pick up from stylish John Gardner the franchise on Ian Fleming's deathproof hero. No one can ever match From Russia with Love, Fleming's dark masterpiece of serious Bondian daring (in which he actually killed Bond with Rosa Klebb's poison-tipped shoeknife), but Benson's latest will satisfy those destined never to have the thrill of discovery From Russia . . . gave us in the 1950s. Back in the Bahamas (where Fleming made a permanent home), Bond comes across 'The Union' and, along with M, is sure that these slick international spies and assassins have stolen from Britain the formula for Skin 17'an airplane covering that can withstand speeds of Mach 7'embedded in a microdot Bond must recover. From the barracuda-infested waters off Nassau and the arms of his star-crossed personal assistant in SIS, Helana Marksbury, world-hopping James eventually finds himself on Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world, facing his old rival, Group Captain Roland Marquis, to whom Bond had once lost a school wrestling match at Eton through a bad call from the referee. Bond knows there's a traitor in SIS'can it be Roland? Or someone even closer to James, leading Union assassins to him? Smartly plotted all the way, right down to a black climax echoing the final page of On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Booklist Review
James Bond, the late Ian Fleming's martini-shaking 007, is alive and well in Benson's latest, chasing nasties from Belgium to the Himalayas. This time, the post^-cold war heavies belong to the Union, a group interested in profits rather than politics. It all begins with the murder of the former governor of the Bahamas while Bond and his lady of the moment are guests in his home. After that, there is the theft of a secret formula and a race to the top of a Nepalese mountain to find the microdot containing the formula. To add to 007's woes, he must cope with a new lady boss--since good old M has retired--and the fact that SIS has a traitor in its midst, who turns out to be Bond's very own assistant . . . whom he has, of course, bedded. It all adds up to solid superagent fun. --Budd Arthur
Library Journal Review
Bond has a new enemy: a crime organization called the Union, which thrives on military espionage. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
