Ian Fleming’s CIA creation takes the lead in a 1950s-set road trip of murder, spies and mystery.
Felix Leiter has always played second fiddle to James Bond—until now. For the first time, the CIA agent gets top billing in a full-length novel written by none other than Raymond Benson, the long-serving 007 continuation author behind six Bond novels, three short stories, and three film novelisations. In The Hook and the Eye, Benson pulls Felix out of Bond’s shadow and hands him the wheel—both literally and narratively.
Published by Ian Fleming Publications, the novel will appear first as a digital serial beginning 27th May, spread over ten biweekly instalments, before arriving in paperback on 2nd October. It’s a return to the episodic tradition of classic pulp fiction, fitting for a story set in 1952, squarely within Fleming’s original timeline—between Live and Let Die and Diamonds are Forever.
The plot finds Leiter adrift after being let go by the CIA, working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. A surveillance job turns deadly when he’s drawn into a tangled web involving a murder and a network of spies hidden in the heart of Manhattan. Tasked with escorting the beautiful and secretive Dora from New York to Texas, Felix embarks on a cross-country journey through a noir-flavoured postwar America, with danger lurking at every turn.
Simon Ward, Publishing Director at IFPL, calls it “the best ‘Bond universe’ book Raymond has ever written”—a bold claim, given Benson’s history with the series, including Zero Minus Ten and the novelisation of The World Is Not Enough. Benson himself describes the book as a mystery, a romance, a spy story and a road trip, proudly noting that it’s the first novel to focus entirely on Leiter, a character he has long admired as a fellow Texan.
Each new episode will be delivered as an update to the original eBook file, requiring readers to enable automatic updates or manually download the latest version. The paperback, already available for pre-order, will follow the final digital release in early autumn.
With The Hook and the Eye, Benson isn’t just extending the Bond universe—he’s expanding it. And for the first time, Felix Leiter isn’t just along for the ride. He is the ride.
