Bond back on the beat

It is not easy for those nurtured on the best creative juice to be satisfied by the work of imitators. But then it takes a present-day genius to dabble in artistic simulation and succeed. The way Sebastian Faulks has managed to retrieve James Bond from the clutches of lesser writers to present a highly credible work in the Ian Fleming mould confirms there is always exception to the rule. This is not simply a remastered work, nor a hopeless parody. Bond comes back to life with his womanising, joie de vivre, sense of adventure and a new realistic coating - creeping middle age and less physical and romantic agility - that Fleming would have loved to have administered himself.

A variety of authors have written 007 novels since the death of Bond's creator, and the results have been mixed. Writing as Robert Markham, Kingsley Amis penned the very first post-Fleming Bond, and this attempt by a novelist better known for his literary work was judged a success. After a decade of less successful entries by such writers as John Gardener, here we have another serious writer, Sebastian Faulks, author of such acclaimed novels as Birdsong, taking up the challenge.

Faulks's author credit on the book (Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming) is both revealing and encouraging - the author has reportedly said that he undertook the task with total seriousness, and he has happily tried to work within the parameters of the Fleming formula rather than the more glossy film incarnation.

Among several of Faulks's canny moves is his decision to keep his 007 in the 1960s rather than catapulting him into the present. The evocation of time and place, notably Paris and the Middle East, is impeccable, as are plotting and detail, as colourful and violent as anything in Fleming. There is, as always, a satisfyingly unpleasant villain, Julius Gorner, with a grotesque deformity of the kind Fleming often gave such characters with grandiose, evil ambitions. Best of all, this is Fleming's James Bond - not a superman - worried about his health and his physical powers, which he fears are on the wane.

Faulks still allows himself a few nods to the Bond films. Dr Julius Gorner has more than a passing resemblance to Drax (Moonraker) and appears in one scene "in a tropical suit with a carnation" just as one remembers Charles Gray playing Blofeld in one of the films. There are some topical references too: opium poppies are coming from the Helmand province in Afghanistan, while Bond is equipped with a gadget by Q Section (there was never a man called 'Q' in the books, just the films); and yet, he fails to use it.

The plot's formula follows Fleming's established pattern with only the requisite number of variations. Not quite recovered after the snake bite poisoning from Scaramanga's bullet two years before, Bond is on a sabbatical. We know that all is not well when a woman offers herself to him, but he turns her down. There is an early casual encounter with the villain, after which Bond follows him to his lair, falls into his evil clutches, is set a test to challenge the very best, fails but subsequently escapes, kills the baddie and saves the world. As ever, Bond has a female accomplice, and here Faulks does achieve something new. One is kept guessing throughout the book as to whether she was really who she said she was, and, if she was not, whether that was good or bad. It is easy to guess wrongly.

Devil May Care is a well-reconstructed blast from the past. However, whether anyone thinks Faulks, for all his wonderful skill, or anyone else should write any more Bond novels is a gem of a teaser.

Reading through Devil May Care is also an exercise at trying to catch the 21st century author on some 1960s details. He wins hands down. The low tech era of the 1960s, where Bond needs a coin for a phone call, is one amusing detail.

This reviewer, however, may have succeeded to find one detail that goes against. The reference to copied, second-rate electronic goods "made in China" could not have been true in 1967. The copycats at the time were based across the water in Japan.

Still, this is a nostalgic romp that captures Fleming's work very well while still celebrating the actual author's undoubted writing prowess.

• Mr Flores is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. He has written books of fiction and non-fiction as well as poetry in both Maltese and English. He was one of the co-founders of the Moviment Qawmien Letterarju.

A review copy of this title was supplied by Merlin Library.