Brokenclaw

July 1, 1990
In his ninth appearance from Gardner's ( Win, Lose or Die ) pen, agent 007, James Bond, is recuperating from burnout in San Francisco. But he is soon activated and charged with preventing classified submarine-detection secrets from falling into Chinese hands. And, while he's at it, to stop this post-Tiananmen Square crowd from destroying Wall Street and other financial centers. Masterminding the villainy here is Brokenclaw Lee, a 64, sexually insatiable, half Chinese/half Blackfoot Indian with rippling muscles. His one physical flaw is his left hand: his thumb is on the wrong side, which can be a problem if you're trying to play Cat's Cradle. Something else problematic is that Bond is both obnoxious and racist. He snarls at prostitutes and yells at their johns, ``If you miss AIDS, you'll end up with herpes.'' He also threatens to disfigure innocent Chinese shopgirls, while other Orientals, for the most part, are either ``cabbages'' or gamblers, smell bad or talk funny. But for most of the book, Bond is playing gastronome or pushing commercial products (``He rubbed himself down with Clinique soap, which he had only recently discovered, and now preferred to anything he had ever used before''). Of course, there are the standard threats of castration or dismemberment by wolves, and women who enjoy three-hour bouts of sexual intercourse shortly after they've been brutally whipped.

February 29, 2016
Vance continues to prove an excellent choice for voicing England’s ultimate spy with a license to kill. This adventure, the 10th in the Gardner series, finds bored Bond on holiday in California. It is there that 007 becomes aware of Fu-Chu Lee who also goes by the name Brokenclaw. Bond goes undercover to investigate the disappearance of five missing scientists, and the evidence points to Lee as the main suspect, but what Bond discovers of Lee’s plans goes way beyond kidnapping, to a possible catastrophe of global proportions. Vance is well acquainted with 007, having narrated more than 30 novels featuring the superspy. His characterization is spot-on. Bond comes across cool and collected, with just enough steel in his voice to let the listener know of the danger hiding just below the surface. Vance brings a variety of clear distinctive voices to the other characters and keeps the adventure moving at a steady pace. A Orion paperback.

March 4, 1996
Called upon to keep submarine-detection secrets away from the Chinese, James Bond combats Brokenclaw, the fiendish, sexually insatiable man whose nickname is a reference to a deformed left hand. ``Bond is both obnoxious and racist,'' said PW , warning that threatened and actual brutality toward women and disparaging remarks about Asians are but a few of this novel's faults.