The Man with the Red Tattoo

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The Man with the Red Tattoo

2003 Coronet Books British paperback edition.
Author Raymond Benson
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series James Bond
Genre(s) Spy novel
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date 2 May 2002
Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages 320 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN ISBN 0340819146 (first edition, hardback)
Preceded by Never Dream of Dying
Followed by Die Another Day

The Man with the Red Tattoo, first published in 2002, was the sixth and final original novel by Raymond Benson featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond (including film novelisations). Carrying the Ian Fleming Publications copyright, it was first published in the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton and in the United States by Putnam. It was later published in Japan in 2003.

After the publication of The Man with the Red Tattoo, Benson wrote the novelisation of Die Another Day which was published later in the year. Die Another Day is considered Benson's final James Bond novel; the following Bond stories being a series of novels about a teenage James Bond in the 1930s by Charlie Higson (see Young Bond), and a trilogy of faux-autobiographies by Samantha Weinberg entitled The Moneypenny Diaries, focusing on Miss Moneypenny. On August 28, 2005, Ian Fleming Publications confirmed that it was planning to publish a one-off adult Bond novel in 2008 to mark the 100th anniversary of Ian Fleming's birth. In July 2007, it was confirmed that the book had been completed by Sebastian Faulks, titled Devil May Care.[1] Much of the media coverage surrounding this announcement ignored the existence of Benson's work, and that of his predecessors John Gardner and Kingsley Amis, claiming that Devil May Care will be the first Bond novel published since 1966.[2]

Benson at one time had plans to release a collection of Bond short stories, but after abruptly announcing his retirement in early 2003 from writing Bond novels, the project was never pursued. Not counting novelisations and short story collections, The Man with the Red Tattoo marks the 33rd original James Bond novel since Ian Fleming introduced the character nearly 50 years earlier.

Contents

[edit] The museum

The people of Japan have always been big fans of James Bond so after being the main location for a second time (the first, Fleming's You Only Live Twice) the people and government of Naoshima (where the story takes place) erected a permanent museum to commemorate the novel and James Bond in general. "007 The Man With the Red Tattoo Museum" was opened on July 24, 2005 in the Kagawa Prefecture.[3]

Additionally, the city of Takamatsu (capital of Kagawa preficture where town of Naoshima belongs) has also begun a petition and committee (the "007 Location Promotion Committee") to EON Productions, the production company behind every official James Bond film starting in 1962 with Dr. No, to have a future Bond film take place in Japan.

[edit] Plot introduction

On a flight from Japan to the United Kingdom, a young Japanese woman dies of a mysterious illness. The illness is a mutated version of the West Nile virus. James Bond finds out that not only was she the daughter of an important Japanese businessman, her entire family is also dead. James Bond travels to Japan in search of the killer. Here Bond re-meets with his longtime friend Tiger Tanaka who introduces him to a female Japanese agent who is later killed by the mutant virus.

[edit] Publication history

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ New lease of life for 007's licence to kill. Retrieved on 2006-07-20.
  2. ^ Novelist pens new 007 adventure. AOL Entertainment (2007-07-11).
  3. ^ Inside the '007 The Man With The Red Tattoo Museum'. Retrieved on August 31, 2005.

[edit] External links

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