Never Dream of Dying

Never Dream of Dying is the second book in Raymond Benson’s Union trilogy, his 2001 continuation James Bond novel between High Time to Kill and The Man with the Red Tattoo. Bond is detached to investigate a Cannes Film Festival massacre engineered by the Union, the French organized-crime syndicate that has now bedeviled him through three books, and he winds up working with a blind French actress named Tylyn Mignonne while the Union’s leader, Le Gerant, plays him.

The Union arc is the most ambitious arc Benson attempted in his five-novel run, and Never Dream of Dying is its midpoint workout. Benson is comfortable in the French setting (the Cannes screening sequence is sharp, the Paris-Tangier travel logistics convincing), and the Tylyn Mignonne romance is more interesting than the typical Bond-girl-by-numbers. The Le Gerant villain remains underdeveloped through this entry, which is a structural problem he is supposed to fix in the next book. As a middle book, it is functional rather than thrilling.

Best for Bond readers committed to the Union trilogy and for fans curious about books like Never Dream of Dying in the John Gardner / Raymond Benson continuation tradition. Three stars, with The Man with the Red Tattoo as a noticeable step up.