For Special Services (1982)

For Special Services, first published in 1982, was the second novel by John Gardner featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond. Carrying the Glidrose Publications copyright, it was first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape and in the United States by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. Cover designed by Bill Botten.

For Special Services

In June 1941 General William Donovan was appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt to the position of Coordinator of Information (COI), a position that later transformed into the chairmanship of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Upon request by Donovan, Ian Fleming was contacted to write a lengthy memorandum describing the structure and functions of a secret service organisation. Parts of this memorandum were later used in the official charter for the OSS, which was later dissolved after World War II in 1945. For appreciation of Fleming's work Donovan presented Fleming with a .38 Police Positive Colt revolver with the inscription, "For Special Services."

In 1944, Donovan proposed to President Roosevelt the creation of a new agency, "which will procure intelligence both by overt and covert methods and will at the same time provide intelligence guidance, determine national intelligence objectives, and correlate the intelligence material collected by all government agencies." The OSS was disbanded in 1945; accordingly, the Central Intelligence Agency; formed in 1947 is a direct descendant of the OSS.

Plot summary

James Bond teams up with CIA agent Cedar Leiter, daughter of his old friend, Felix Leiter, to investigate one Markus Bismaquer, an ice cream tycoon who is suspected of reviving the criminal organisation SPECTRE, which was believed to have been disbanded years earlier following the death of its leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, at the hands of Bond (in You Only Live Twice).

The British Secret Service learns that Bismaquer is an obsessive collector of rare prints, so Bond and Cedar visit the man's huge ranch in Amarillo, Texas posing as art dealers. Their true identities are soon revealed, but not until Bond holds his own both in an impromptu (and fixed) car race arranged by Bismaquer, and in the bed of Bismaquer's frustrated wife, Nena. Nena, who has only one breast, quickly wins Bond's heart and his sympathy and Bond is convinced that Bismaquer is the one now being referred to as the new Blofeld.

Bond discovers that the revitalised SPECTRE plans to take over control of NORAD headquarters in order to gain control of America's military space satellite network. NORAD personnel are supplied with ice cream contaminated with a mild narcotic which makes consumers susceptible to following orders without question. His true identity revealed, Bond is captured and brainwashed into believing he is an American general. Bond is directed to inspect NORAD and obtain from the drug-affected military personnel computer tapes relating to the satellite system. Bond was set up to be killed in the ensuing attack by SPECTRE forces on the base; however, Bismaquer, who is bisexual and had taken a liking to Bond, gave him an antidote to bring him out the hypnosis.

Via helicopter, Nena takes Bond from

NORAD to a SPECTRE house in Louisiana. Bond witnesses Bismaquer shot and killed by Nena, who is in fact, Nena Blofeld, the daughter of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, a fact she confesses to Bond. Just before firing at Bond, he throws a chair at Nena, which thrusts her through a window, falling into the crushing grip of her pet pythons. She is put out of her misery by Felix Leiter, who arrives on the scene after Cedar informed her superiors.

Characters

James Bond

Ann Reilly

Cedar Leiter

Felix Leiter

Markus Bismaquer: Bismaquer, married to Nena Bismaquer, is a collector of fine prints and the owner of an ice cream plant in Amarillo, Texas. He is believed to be either a direct descendant or a confidant of Ernst Stavro Blofeld and to have resurrected the evil organization SPECTRE. John Gardner alludes, on more than one occasion, that Bismaquer in truth is a homosexual and possibly had fallen for Bond.

Walter Luxor: Bismaquer's partner and a high-ranking member of SPECTRE. At one point he is believed to be a revived Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Mike Mazzard: a member of SPECTRE tasked to bring Bond to Amarillo. After Bond objects this offer, Mazzard attempts to kill Bond in Washington, D.C. Mazzard also aids Luxor in infiltrating NORAD HQ.

Nena Bismaquer: the wife of Markus Bismaquer. She later turns out to be the daughter of Ernst Stavro Blofeld and the successor and leader of SPECTRE.

Car

This is the second novel in Gardner's Bond series in which Bond drives a Saab 900 Turbo; however, this is the first book in which the car's colour is mentioned and it is referred to by its more popular nickname, the Silver Beast.

Publication history

UK first hardback edition: September 1982 Jonathan Cape

U.S. first hardback edition: April 1982 Coward, McCann & Geoghegan

UK first paperback edition: 1982 Coronet Books

U.S. first paperback edition: April 1983 Berkley Books

The U.S. hardcover had a first printing of 95,000 copies.

Reviews

Kingsley Amis, himself a former Bond author, was the harshest. His Times Literary Supplement review called the book "an unrelieved disaster", Gardner "not the most self-assured of writers", and said that the plot was "absurd" and "blundering". Amis said, "What makes Mr Gardner's book so hard to read is not so much its endlessly silly story as its desolateness, its lack of the slightest human interest or warmth. [...] But then to do anything like that the writer must be genuinely interested in his material."