File Note: Strictly Confidential - Authorised Personnel Only. Subject: James Bond. Description: Age 13. Dark hair; blue eyes; tall for age; surprisingly strong; fluent French, good German. Essential components: A Mediterranean mystery. One kidnapped girl - feisty, blond, superfit Amy Goodenough, sister of James' best friend Mark. One villainous pirate - Zoltan Magyr. Mysterious Latin-speaking men lurking near Eton. One fast car.
This starts off a bit slow but is soon hurtling along at a breakneck pace. The plot was interesting and the characters were great. I liked Amy. She was so brave and extremely resilient throughout the danger she encounters. Vendetta was wicked. I had mixed feelings about Zoltan - much like James, I found it was hard to remember at times that he was the villain. James is such a fascinating character. He's not the smooth operator that he becomes but there are lots of hints throughout. It's interesting to see him develop and evolve. The ending was somewhat abrupt - I would've liked to see a bit more detail about how Mark reacted to Amy's homecoming or Victor's thoughts on the events with Jana and just some general closure - did the other Eton boys make it out okay?, etc, etc. Still the rest was great and overall it was an enjoyable read. Personal rating 4 stars. Target audience 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.
