Doubleday to Release New Bond Novel

James Bond is getting a fresh martini and a new print treatment. The beloved fictional super-spy will be the subject of a new thriller, Devil May Care, slated to be released on what would have been the 100^th birthday of creator Ian Fleming, May 28, 2008. Stephen Rubin, president and publisher of Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, acquired U.S.rights for the title, which was commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. The book will be written by Charlotte Gray author Sebastian Faulks and released simultaneously in the U.S. and the U.K. (Penguin, Fleming’s longtime U.S. publisher, will release Devil May Care in the U.K.)

Faulks, whose forthcoming novel Engleby is scheduled to be released by Doubleday in September, said he tried to write Devil May Care as Fleming might have. “My novel is meant to stand in the line of Fleming’s own books, where the story is everything,” he said. With that in mind, Devil May Care is set, like Fleming’s last Bond novel, the 1966 Octopussy and the Living Daylights, during the Cold War with the action taking place in exotic locales across the globe.

Devil May Care, which was acquired from Gillon Aitken of Aitken Alexander Associates and will be edited by v-p and editorial director of Doubleday, Deb Futter, will be published as part of a larger celebration of Fleming’s 100^th birthday, with events scheduled in the U.S. and England.

Faulks, who will join authors like Kinglsey Amis and John Gardner, in writing the Bond character, will also carry on a very well-heeled literary franchise. To date, over 100 million Bond books have been sold worldwide.