An Interview with Raymond Benson
We sat down with legendary Bond novelist Raymond Benson to talk all things Felix, Fleming, and The Hook and the Eye! Read on to learn more about this brand new adventure focused on Felix Leiter, James Bond’s trusted friend and ally.
After a long break from writing for Ian Fleming Publications, how does it feel to be back with a brand new story?
It feels great! For one thing, the people at Ian Fleming Publications are fabulous to work with. Both now and back when I was doing the Bonds in the late 1990s and early 2000s when there was a completely different team in place. In the past I was fortunate to work with Peter Janson-Smith, the man who was Ian Fleming’s literary agent. He not only acted as editor and mentor in a professional capacity to me, but he was also my friend. I miss him a great deal. That said, I love working with you lovely folks at IFPL now. It’s been a uniquely rewarding experience doing The Hook and the Eye with everyone. I’m glad to be back.
How did you find reconnecting with Felix, was it challenging at first or did it feel like returning to an old friend?
I love Felix. I always have, ever since I first read Fleming’s books as a kid in the 1960s. Somehow I identified with him, maybe because he was a Texan (I was born and raised in Texas, too). And while several fine actors portrayed Felix in the films, we’ve never seen Fleming’s literary character on the silver screen. For one thing, in four of the six books Fleming wrote in which Felix appears, he has a prosthesis for a right hand. But there’s also a joviality to his personality that’s only in the books. He’s very much a “kidder” and he always stays upbeat. Having the opportunity to get to know Felix better and place him in his own adventure was indeed like returning to an old friend—and that includes revisiting the Bond universe itself.
What was the very first thing you did regarding your research for this project?
The first thing I did was re-read all the Felix passages in the Fleming books. I’ve read the novels numerous times throughout my life and I know them well. I just wanted to reacquaint myself with Felix’s speech, the way Fleming presents him, and also note the details of Felix’s life and history that Fleming gave us. There isn’t a lot about Felix prior to his meeting Bond in Casino Royale. But there are tidbits and clues… enough for me to take and then develop into something bigger. I then wanted to know exactly how his prosthesis would affect his life. Fleming doesn’t give us much info about the “hook.” When I first read the books, I pictured in my head a pirate hook. That, of course, is not what it would have been. In the time period I set the story—the early 1950s—Felix’s prosthesis would have been supplied by the Veterans Administration and similar to what actor Harold Russell had in the movie The Best Years of Our Lives. I sought out a prosthetics doctor who provided a lot of the information I needed to give readers a better understanding of how Felix deals with his disability and still manages to be something of a detective hero!
Felix Leiter is usually seen as a loyal ally to James Bond, but in this novel, he’s on his own. How did you approach writing from Felix’s perspective, especially in the context of a detective story as opposed to a Bond adventure?
I was certainly inspired by the pulp noir novels of the 1940s and 1950s, and certainly by Fleming’s 1950s-era novels. There’s a certain vibe that you get when you read those things. I’m not saying The Hook and the Eye is a pulp noir crime novel, but there are elements. I also wouldn’t call Fleming pulp noir nor “hard-boiled.” He was his own unique thing. I suppose I’ve fashioned the book more in his direction. I wanted it be as if Fleming had somehow developed an American voice and written the book himself in 1953. One thing that helped me immensely was the decision to write the novel in first person, from Felix’s perspective. This also helps generate that noir sensibility, but it also allows the reader to get to know Felix very, very well! We’ve never had a Bond novel written in first person, save for The Spy Who Loved Me, and that narrator isn’t Bond! So that’s a big difference in the way I’ve approached a Felix Leiter detective story as opposed to a James Bond adventure.
This project has been in the works for a long time. How different is the end result from your original concept?
Not very different at all! I’m not sure this is relevant, but way back in the late 1980s the very first novel I ever wrote was about a private detective who had a prosthesis. He wasn’t Felix Leiter. He was a different guy, but similar enough that down in my subconscious I was maybe thinking he was my version of a Felix Leiter. The title of the book was, coincidentally, Hook and Eye, Inc., as that was the name of the character’s detective agency. The story, locations, and time period were completely different from The Hook and the Eye. Peter Janson-Smith read the book and gave me some good feedback, but he agreed with me that it was the proverbial “first novel” and belonged in a drawer, never to see the light of day again! But it was a learning experience, and perhaps Peter saw then that, for future reference, I could begin a novel and, more importantly, finish it. Anyway, the current “true” conception of a Felix Leiter novel began after I had done my Bonds, which finished up in 2002. I wanted to see a Felix book in Fleming’s timeline that addressed his life and work in the early 1950s. The notion had come up occasionally in conversation with you at IFPL since that time, but doing a project like that just wasn’t in your plans then. Now it is! Last May 2024 I pitched the concept to Simon Ward, and that evolved into a full blown written proposal and outline, after which I received the green light. The concept and story hasn’t changed since. I suggested the title, The Hook and the Eye. I never meant for that to echo the title of my long lost unpublished first novel, but it better fits this one.
Aside from having a Texan background, are there any similarities between yourself and Felix, either in terms of personality, values, or life experiences? How much of yourself do you see in him, and did that influence your writing of his character?
Whenever any author uses a first person narrative, I believe a touch of the author’s own voice goes into that of the narrator. I don’t think it can be helped. I think I know exactly how Felix would sound in real life because I knew and know men like him. I don’t think Felix has an exaggerated Texas drawl. He spent time in Europe and Washington DC. His accent would be tempered, much like mine. My Texas drawl was drilled out by being in theatre for so many years! I left Texas in my early twenties and moved to New York City. I have lived in other places in the north since then and now the Chicago area. Maybe Felix talks like I do, perhaps slower. As for other character traits… I’m sure my values match Felix’s, but we are of different generations. Felix would have been in my father’s generation, having served in World War II. That, in and of itself, makes our world outlooks markedly different. Felix did military service and worked in government afterwards—all that is foreign to me. But I know enough about those things and I have known men who have had those life experiences. It’s more about Felix’s personality. That is closer to me. I like to think I’m as upbeat as Felix. When I’m with my pals I joke around like Felix. I enthusiastically praise whatever food and drink we’re having in Felix fashion. I’m not the heavy drinker or smoker that Felix is, that’s for sure, but, like him, I’m a jazz fan! Incidentally, there’s a member of my family who was born without a right hand. So, there’s that familiarity, too. Also relevant to my own life are the locations. I’ve lived in or been to all of the locations in the story. A certain national park plays a big part in the tale, one that I’ve visited numerous times because it was in close proximity to where I grew up. The route of Felix’s road trip is one I traveled a few times. The settings in The Hook and the Eye are some of my favorite places in America.
Your attention to historical detail, particularly with the placement of the story between Live and Let Die and Diamonds Are Forever, adds a level of authenticity to the narrative. What were the challenges in fitting The Hook and the Eye into this established timeline, and how did you integrate the social and cultural landscape of 1952 into the plot?
John Griswold’s 2006 book, Ian Fleming’s James Bond: Annotations and Chronologies for Ian Fleming’s James Bond Stories speculated when in the real world that Fleming’s books took place. John used clues from the books and other factors and came up with believable conceits. He determined that Live and Let Die actually took place in January and February 1952. Diamonds Are Forever was in late summer 1953. Thus, my story for Felix could take place throughout most of 1952. This was fortunate for me because some real world events occurred that year that I felt could play into the tale. Once I committed to that setting, it became a matter of researching the period, especially the American landscape at the time in terms of roads, restaurants, and hotels that Felix would be using. I had to approximate what did and didn’t exist in 1952 in certain cities that are in the story. I was born in the 1950s. It really wasn’t too far removed from my own memories. The small town in Texas where I grew up was always at least five years behind the times of major urban areas like, say, New York… or even Dallas. There are a lot of places in the States, especially in rural areas, where remnants of the past still exist. Even today you can visit small towns in America and find a Main Street that was built in the 1930s or 1940s with vintage movie theaters, retail businesses, diners and coffee shops, and offices. Sort of a ”lost Americana” that’s hiding in plain sight. That’s what I was interested in conveying. When I could, I used real places that might have been prominent in 1952 but are now either a shadow of what they were or, usually, completely gone. I also had to be mindful of what things cost then. Then there were the social mores that existed then. All the smoking. The drinking. Repressed sex. The burgeoning jazz scene. The Cold War political environment. All of this plays into The Hook and the Eye.
Without giving too much away, how did you go about developing Felix’s love interest/sidekick, Dora? What can readers expect from her?
Well, to talk too much about her would indeed give a lot away! I suppose I was thinking about the old films noir that had femmes fatale. (A femme fatale in those old films was usually a bad woman who led an otherwise good man to his doom.) I wanted someone that evoked that kind of character… but mind you, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Dora is a femme fatale. I wanted to give her an air of mystery that is compelling for Felix. Is she bad? Is she good? I’m hoping that she will keep the readers guessing, just as she keeps Felix guessing.
There is so much to love about Felix as a protagonist. What do you hope readers enjoy most?
I’m hoping that readers will connect to Felix’s personality and get to know him as a fully drawn character. The positive feedback I’ve received so far from beta readers, editors, and the IFPL board seems to concentrate on Felix himself and the voice I’ve given him. The mystery-melodrama story/plot is also something a bit different for the Bond literary universe, but I believe it’s something Fleming might have come up with had he decided to write a Felix Leiter novel himself back in the 1950s. At least I’d like to think so.
Our thanks to Raymond for answering our questions! The Hook and the Eye is available now as an eBook, and will be published in paperback in October. You can find out more about Raymond’s writing process in our Hooked on Leiter video series.
Felix Leiter – James Bond’s trusted friend and ally – takes centre stage in a brand new adventure by legendary Bond novelist, Raymond Benson.
It is 1952. Felix has lost his job at the CIA and finds himself working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. What starts as a simple surveillance job turns into a matter of life and death when Felix stumbles upon a murder and a cabal of spies embedded in Manhattan. Hired to transport the impossibly beautiful and impossibly secretive Dora from New York to Texas, Felix is thrust into a non-stop adventure, where danger and deceit lie in wait around every bend in the road.
The Hook and the Eye is a mystery, a romance, a spy story, a road trip tale and a postcard of a lost Americana. It is also Raymond Benson at his very best.