Raymond Benson Interview
14th June 2025
The author talks about his recently released Felix Leiter novel, 'The Hook and the Eye'
By Tyson Blue
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Raymond Benson is a familiar name to Bond aficionados, not only for hs 'The James Bond Bedside Companion', but also for the novels and short stories he has written continuing the James Bond series. To date, he has written more Bond continuation novels than anyone except John Gardner. His Black Stiletto series is also highly recommended.
In May 2025, Ian Fleming Publivcations released the first installment of Benson's newest entry in the Bond Universe, 'The Hook and the Eye' (Order Amazon.com), a novel featuring Bond's longtime friend and ally, Felix Leiter. He gives us an advance look at the book here:
You've written and published a number of James Bond continuation adventures - six novels, three film adaptations and three short stories, and Felix Leiter appears in some of them. How did 'The Hook and the Eye', your Felix Leiter novel, currently appearing in serial form, come about? Who originated the idea?
It was my idea. I’ve wanted to do a Felix Leiter novel for a long time. I had pitched it a couple of times over the years, but it just wasn’t in the publishing plans of Ian Fleming Publications (IFP) for whatever reason. Now that they have begun doing a couple of spin-offs, like Kim Sherwood’s “Double O” series and Vaseem Khan’s “Q” mysteries, I thought maybe they might be more receptive to the idea. Sure enough, they were, and things started moving quickly after that.
In preparing for this project, did you review Leiter's appearances in Fleming's work or any of the other continuation authors. as well as his appearances in your own books?
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read Ian Fleming’s novels in my lifetime. I did, however, re-read all of the Felix passages in his books before I began. I’ve read all the other authors’ books, of course, but I didn’t feel the need to re-read those for the Felix appearances. The folks at IFP don’t require their authors to be consistent with each other, only to Ian Fleming. We can’t contradict him. You’ll have seen that the books have been all over the map in timelines—past, present, and future! Even the version of Felix in my own Bond novels, written in the late 1990s and early 2000s, may not necessarily be this version of Felix. Even a 1990s Bond can’t really be the same Bond from Fleming’s 1950s adventures, although we pretend that he is. We just pick him up from the 50s and 60s and drop him intact into the 1990s or whatever decade we want.
How was the decision made to set this novel in the time period from Leiter's being attacked by a shark in 'Live And Let Die' and his next encounter with Bond in 'Diamonds Are Forever'?
That was me. The “mishap,” as Felix calls it, would have been such a life-changing event, losing an arm and part of a leg, that so much of his character in Fleming’s books from then on is colored by that tragedy. And yet he retains his buoyant, upbeat personality that is always present in Fleming’s works. But we know he must have struggled to re-enter society and it likely became a lifelong struggle. He takes his disability with stride and chalks it up to the hazards of his professional life, but there may be moments of self-reflection when he’s alone.
The story is set in the early to mid '50s. Did you do much research to make the setting as authentic as possible?
Most of the research for the book was for 1952 period detail. I knew the character. I knew the locations—I’ve lived in or been in all the locations in the novel (it does eventually move out of Manhattan, the locale of the first three episodes). The work remained to find out what existed and didn’t exist where the story takes us. This entailed motels/hotels, eateries, businesses… things like that. It was great fun, actually. Creating the plot required a bit of historical research in geopolitical and scientific stuff to make sure what I was presenting was feasible and accurate. Fleming himself did this, but he also once said that he didn’t mind if readers found his plots “improbable,” as long as they didn’t find them “impossible.” Both of my feet are planted in the accurate and plausible, but there may be a toe or two in the fanciful pool.
Early on in the novel, James Bond is not mentioned by name; why is this?
The spotlight is on Felix. We don’t need that “Bond, James Bond” guy. Readers will know to whom Felix is referring when he mentions his British pal.
The novel is being presented in serial form, a format I've always enjoyed. It has been used successfully a few times in recent years, most notably in the case of Stephen King's "The Green Mile". How did this presentation come about?
This came about during initial discussions with IFP. They were looking for something that might attract more traffic to their website; hence, not only is the story being serialized, but we’re adding a lot of “extra value content” to their website throughout the summer as the serial progresses. It’s an experiment, to be sure, but something we thought might be fun. There will always be fans who would rather wait for the full printed book in October, but for those who want to get in on the “streaming”-style story and let the thing build anticipation for the every-two-week drop of an episode, it will be a different and hopefully exciting experience. [Ed: since this conversation Ian Fleming Publications have made the decision to release the rest of the novel on 24 June.]
As this is being written, the first installment is the only one released. although it's early days yet, how has the book been received? Any reader feedback as yet?
From what I’ve seen or been told, the reception has been quite good. As you say, it’s early days… but if I do say so myself, the thing gets even better as it goes on!
Assuming that the book is a success, would you be open to doing another Felix Leiter book? Or, dare we say, another James Bond novel?
In this business we never say “never!”
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