Shaken, not stirred. Such a fiction doesn't seem so funny to Raymond Benson, the latest writer to take over the chore of crafting the 007 capers, continuing the work started by the late Ian Fleming, whose estate owns the character. Benson's third stab at writing the James Bond books, The Facts of Death , brings the suave, clever hero to the Lone Star State for the first time while on the trail of chemical terrorists. The book, released in the summer, takes Bond to Bastrop and Austin and to dinner at Chuy's, a Tex-Mex restaurant. Benson, who has had an insatiable passion for Bond since he was a boy growing up in Odessa, Texas, said his Bond will remind people why they fell in love with the smug, dapper agent in the first place.
Bond is a killer.
He became a kinder, gentler Bond. Ironically, the passive Bond is similar to the real-life Benson, who is married, doesn't smoke, and says he would never own a gun. He is an anti-hero. Fans have raved about Benson's treatment of Bond. Benson gets into the nitty-gritty stuff, but also deals with the psychology behind Bond.