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Title: Bad writing; bad story; just plain bad.
Review: Recently I observed a fifth-grader trying out instruments for the following year's school band. The band director, trying to get a sense of the kid's musical aptitude, sang a series of varied notes to the kid and asked him to sing them back. The poor kid sang back exactly the same, flat tone each time. Apparently he was truly tone deaf, unable to distinguish a C from an F sharp from a B flat.The people who are giving this book 5 stars are the literary equivalent of that kid. That anyone could put such a poorly written, unoriginal, and boring effort as this Benson story on the same level as any of the original Fleming books... well, I wouldn't have thought it possible. But then I didn't know anyone was as tone deaf as that kid.I don't have perfect pitch, but I can tell the difference between two notes an octave and half apart; and likewise, I can tell the difference between a 5-star story like "Casino Royale" and a .005-star story like "The Facts of Death".
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