Never Send Flowers

Written by John Gardner

Narrated by Simon Vance

In different corners of the world four high-profile figures are assassinated in less than a week. Nobody links the deaths but one thing is certain: each of them has been stalked, sought out, and killed with care and preparation. Then a sinister connection is established: a single, blood-tipped rose is sent to each funeral and an unremarkable female agent is murdered in Switzerland.

When MI5 come to MI6 to ask for help M brings in his best. At first, a weekend abroad seems tempting to James Bond: especially when he’s paired with Flicka von Grusse, a gorgeous Swiss intelligence officer. But this is a perilous assignment that starts with the mysterious actor David Dragonpol and leads them to Athens, Milan, and on to EuroDisney…and an explosive climax.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Oct 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781511306652

John Gardner

John Gardner (1933–1982) was born in Batavia, New York. His critically acclaimed books include the novels Grendel, The Sunlight Dialogues, and October Light, for which he received the National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as several works of nonfiction and criticism such as On Becoming a Novelist. He was also a professor of medieval literature and a pioneering creative writing teacher whose students included Raymond Carver and Charles Johnson.

Reviews for Never Send Flowers

[z0ryan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Gardner near the end of us tenure as a James Bond author made a few attempts to experiment. While The Man from Barbarossa ended up a failure, Never Send Flowers turns out a rather interesting departure: James Bond vs. a serial killer. The murderer targets celebrities, but aside from that isn't much different from the kinds of solo-killers found in cop and mystery thrillers. He makes for an odd opponent for James Bond, but the down-to-earth and unpolitical nature of the villain makes a constrast from some of Gardner's other plot-heavy tomes.Still, Never Send Flowers is a mild adventure, readable but only memorable for its different take on the 007 premise. It stands out among Gardner's later Bond books, but it's still leagues away from Fleming. And the finale at EuroDisney is just plain screwball.