The Man with the Red Tattoo

The Man with the Red Tattoo
2003 Coronet Books British paperback edition.
Author(s)	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)
OCLC Number	48837119
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 22
LC Classification	PS3552.E547666 M36 2002b
Preceded by	Never Dream of Dying
Followed by	Die Another Day Devil May Care

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. 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. The novel's working title was Red Widow Dawn.^[1]

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.^[2] 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 was the first Bond novel published since 1966.^[3]

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 35th original James Bond novel since Ian Fleming introduced the character nearly 50 years earlier.

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.

Publication history

• UK first hardback edition: May 2, 2002 Hodder & Stoughton
• U.S. first hardback edition: June 6, 2002 Putnam
• UK first paperback edition: June 9, 2003 Coronet Books
• U.S. first paperback edition: May 2003 Jove Books

Footnotes

1. ^ Benson on Bond - The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers
2. ^ Lyons, William. "New lease of life for 007's licence to kill". The Scotsman (Edinburgh). http://news.scotsman.com/arts.cfm?id=1855622005. Retrieved 2006-07-20. 
3. ^ "Novelist pens new 007 adventure". AOL Entertainment. 2007-07-11. http://entertainment.aol.co.uk/bigstoryents/novelist-pens-new-007-adventure/article/20070711055709990001. 

External links

• Official Japanese 007 museum website
• CBn The Man With The Red Tattoo Review
• CBn Raymond Benson Interview, Part III
• Her Majesty's Secret Servant: Return of the Gaijin (Michael Reed reviews The Man with the Red Tattoo)