The Man with the Red Tattoo

Raymond Benson's Bond #6

by Raymond Benson, Simon Vance (Reading)

When a British businessman and his family are killed in Japan by a virulent form of West Nile disease, James Bond suspects a mass assassination. Investigating with the help of beautiful Japanese agent Reiko Tamura and his old friend, Tiger Tanaka, Bond searches for the killers and the one surviving daughter, Mayumi.



Bond’s discoveries lead him to believe that two powerful factions controlled by the mysterious terrorist Goro Yoshida are playing God. Between them they have created the perfect weapon, one small and seemingly insignificant enough to strike anywhere, unnoticed.



With an emergency G8 summit meeting just days away, Bond has his work cut out for him discovering when—and how—the next attack will occur. It’s a race against time as Bond confronts both man and nature in a desperate bid to stop the release of a deadly virus that could destroy the Western world.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Espionage, Action, Adventure, Mystery, Collections

Audio CD

First published May 1, 2002

About the author

Raymond Benson is the author of approximately 40 titles. Among his works are the critically-acclaimed and New York Times best-selling serial THE BLACK STILETTO, and he was also the third--and first American--continuation author of the official James Bond 007 novels. His latest novels are HOTEL DESTINY--A GHOST NOIR, BLUES IN THE DARK, IN THE HUSH OF THE NIGHT and THE SECRETS ON CHICORY LANE.

Reviews

[Ron Wroblewski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, that's it, my last of 40 Bond books read. There are a few more single author Bond books out there but as far as I am concerned I have completed the readings. Happy to have finished, sad that no more of them to read. Bond saves Japan and the US from biological attack. Much action, some background, a bit of romance - that's Bond.

[Alice · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read a few of Benson's Bond novels soon after they came out, and concluded that I could take them or leave them. I gave him another chance with this, and well. Wellllll. It wasn't entirely wasted time. There were bits I quite liked.

I enjoyed the Japanese setting, and the return of 'Tiger' Tanaka. There was a little too much exposition for my needs, but almost 15 years have passed since the book was written and we probably all know a bit more about Japan than we used to (thanks, The Internet).

On the down side, every woman 007 fancies is described as looking 'like a student'. Creepy, Mr Bond.

Benson walks the line between Fleming's Bond and Movie Bond: we meet Major Boothroyd, rather than Q, but he presides over an array of novelty exploding gadgets (including a Palm Pilot; ah, 2003!). Credit to him for trying, but movie-style one-liners are a bit unwelcome coming from Literary Bond, who should be a more sensitive and vulnerable animal than his film counterpart.

[Carson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leading up to "No Time to Die," I am re-reading as many Bond novels as I can.

"The Man With the Red Tattoo" involves a plot to weaponize a virus and cause global chaos. It also takes James Bond back to Japan for the first time since the events of "You Only Live Twice"/"The Man With the Golden Gun" so there are many very poignant memories like Tiger Tanaka, Kissy Suzuki, the end of Blofeld and Bond's own son.

Benson is descriptive as Fleming was, and he does his homework. There is a great deal of deep history and rich references to a litany of essences of Japanese culture. At the heart of this story is a family with an interesting past, a slew of villains and the end of the Benson story.

This is a good novel, but it is likely the least impactful of the Benson Bond stories. It also incorporates fewer of the typical Bond elements than most. The climax seems a bit rushed. Overall, enjoyable. 3 stars.

_______________________________________________________
The last of the Benson original 007 stories, and probably the least impressive outing but still a 3 1/2 star effort. One thing Benson does so effectively is resuscitate the prominent points of the Fleming stories and infuse them into his works while still being very respectful to the source material. His details of cultures, countries and the surroundings are quite in depth and marvelous. His James Bond is quite faithful to the original books yet forges ahead with new adventures while reflecting on his intense past from time to time. I applaud Benson for being willing to explore this all while taking risks from time to time.

In the aftermath of the Union, the quality of villains dips a bit in this one but I have to say I will never look at mosquitoes the same way.

It's great to see Bond not only return to Japan but the incorporation of some familiar elements makes it all the better.

3 1/2 stars.

[Zhiqing · Rating 2 out of 5]

I simply cannot picture Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig play this tedious Bond! A disgrace to the 007 franchise!
Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks was so much better!!!

[Ira Livingston · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Best of villain scheme of Raymond Benson and possibly any Bond yet, as Bond returns to Japan, haunted by the plot of You Only Live Twice and tackles the Yakuza.

Teaming again with his friend Tiger, Benson blends classic Fleming once again into the story.

I loved the nod to the canon, and the reprise of Tiger, and will miss Benson as he leaves the Bond series. The sad part is he leaves with another novelized adaption Die another Day, a poor film, and hopefully not in the vein of his last adaptive attempt.

Other than that I can’t wait to read the next one in the series. Below is my updated ranking of the Canon with the last book moving up another slot. Hope you’ll enjoy them as well.

Overall rating of book series:
1 - Casino Royale / On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2 - Goldfinger / Never Dream of Dying
3 - From Russia with Love / The Man with the Red Tattoo
4 - Live and Let Die
5 - Diamonds are Forever / Dr. No
6 - Moonraker / For Special Services
7 - Scorpius / High Time to Kill
8 - Doubleshot
9 - Thunderball / License Renewed / The Facts of Death
10- Colonel Sun
11- You Only Live Twice
12- James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me (Wood)
13- Icebreaker / GoldenEye
14- Zero Minus Ten
15- For Your Eyes Only / Octopussy & The Living Daylights
16- The Man with the Golden Gun / Tomorrow Never Dies
17- The Spy Who Loved Me
18- Lives Forever
19- No Deals, Mr. Bond
20- James Bond and Moonraker (Wood)
21- The Man from Barbarossa
22- Win, Lose or Die
23- Role of Honor / Brokenclaw
24- Death is Forever / The World is not Enough
25- Licence to Kill
26- Never Send Flowers
27- SeaFire / COLD

[Clem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raymond Benson’s sixth, and last, entry in the literary James Bond series. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed Benson’s tenure as the official author of 007. True, some did not, but comparing authors of James Bond is a bit like comparing the actors that played the role - everyone has their opinions. I actually like Benson better than Ian Fleming. I think part of the reason is that Fleming was churning out these books more than half a century ago (he died in 1964), and the style of writing that was popular then, doesn’t necessarily translate to popular mainstream fiction more than 50 years later. Plus, for me, I saw most of the films before I read any of Fleming’s books, so my imagination was a bit unfairly biased. We then had John Gardner (actually Kingsley Amis wrote one book in the late 60s, but in my opinion, one book doesn’t count) take over the series for about 15 years beginning in the early 1980s, but I found most of his books to be somewhat subpar and a bit confusing.

Benson always has the ability to be clear, concise, yet pack his books full of action, beautiful women, and exotic locations. I really don’t care if he doesn’t describe people, places, and things in the same meticulous fashion as Fleming. All I want is a good story, and not to get lost in a confusing espionage laden plot.

I will concede, however, that this book doesn’t necessarily have a stellar plot, and it can be a bit confusing. It’s not confusing because of the plot, but it’s confusing because this book takes place in Japan, and there are lot of characters with long, hard to pronounce Japanese names with a lot of “Ys” and “Ks”. If that sounds racist, I’m sorry. It is what it is, and I got a bit lost with all of these protracted names. The plot is so-so. Apparently, some evil Japanese mafia types are trying to bring the world to its knees by germ warfare. Specifically, they’ve manufactured a species of mosquito that can spread a lethal disease very quickly. A very scary synopsis for someone such as myself that lives in a very humid climate in Southern Texas. I would also think it would be a lot easier to stop a criminal superpower such as a Blofeld than it would be to stop any type of mosquito. But anyway….

As Bond travels through Japan, Raymond Benson also gives his reader a primer in Japanese culture. We learn an awful lot about Japanese people, Japanese culture, and Japanese customs. Again, some readers are turned off by this diversion and find it completely unnecessary, yet it never seemed too big of a diversion for me, and I actually enjoyed the author playing a bit of a tour guide as well as telling me a story. He also brings back some main characters from the literary Bond’s past (he did this in his last Bond book Never Dream of Dying). For this one, we go back to the last time Bond was in Japan, which would be the Fleming Novel You Only Live Twice. We are reintroduced to Tiger Tanaka again, as well as reminisce about the Bond girl (deceased, naturally) Kissy Susuki. Fortunately, one doesn’t really need to read that book before tackling this one, so don’t feel as though you’ll be at any sort of disadvantage if you’re unfamiliar with that one.

Even though the overall story wasn’t as strong as others by Benson, I still really enjoyed it. I’ve always liked the fact that even though Benson’s Bond is infallible, he’s not above pain, and walks around a lot through these stories beaten and bruised. It’s nice to see that even 007 is human.

I’m not sure why Raymond Benson stopped after six novels. Maybe it was his choice to stop, maybe not, but I’d highly recommend them. If you do a search you can now find these six novels within two “collections” that will serve your reading purposes just fine if you’d like to save a bit of money. I’m actually even eager to read more of this author’s work other than his James Bond novels. Nice job, Mr. Benson.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 2 out of 5]

It reads like a "wait, let me unfold the tourist brochure and tell you this...", then a refolding of the brochure to commence with the tale. The plot in general, as with the previous novels, are written as if they're movie scenes lashed together. Each one has a slap-stick chase scene which I find abhorent to the Bond character. In another novel, Bond's inexplicably shooting a villain in the face in an elevator and then running from the police through TV sets is painful. This one has a chase through a Kubuki playhouse simply to add some description of Kubuki. Bond finally finds a key character (the prosititute) in the latter third of the story, in Sapporo, and takes her with him on a dangerous investigation of the villain's HQ. Why didn't Tanaka pick her up and allow Bond to operate on his own? If she was so important to the case, she should have been in Tanaka's custody within an hour. When Bond's female partner and love interest doesn't make it past the latter third of the story, Bond forgets his anguish later on and beds the prostitute (as the earlier reviewer mentioned, he had already seen her as a chld-figure--so how did this change take place?) The dwarf is captured so easily after previous vicious battles, it seemed as if Benson just wanted to get rid of him quickly. Most obviously, is that with all this knowledge uncovered about mosquito-carrying virus being targeted for the G8 conference...do you really think the security services of those countries would have permitted the President, the Prime Minister, and other leaders to even step foot in Japan? The plot's major weakness was in having the conference continue to take place in a location identified as having an obvious breech in security. He should have figured out how to be more realistic, yet still involving the story line.

The characterization of Bond is again dissapointing. Bond is consistantly portrayed as a bit of a shallow, comic character--he seems to have learned nothing from his past exploits, he's easily deceived, his physical prowess is usually less than it should be. Benson had a terrific idea with this novel--bring him back to a significant time in his past and retrace some steps. This would have been great had he also extended the revisit from "You Only Live Twice" to "Moonraker" as well. What I mean by that is I found Fleming's Bond in Moonraker to be an extremely lonely, melancholic figure. The solitary "knight" who has no friends and sacrifices all for the good of his country. The last scene in Fleming's Moonraker was perhaps the most powerful in all the Bond novels. Benson had a wonderful opportunity to end this novel in the same way. He lost his love interest to violence, it dredged up all the old ghosts (I must point out here, though, that Bond reacts to the death of his love interest by selfishly lamenting about how it could be happening to HIM again, when the woman was the one who died--no thought to the poor victim, just to himself, not a very noble reaction for Benson's Bond). Ray had the great opportunity to end the story not with another cinematic bedding of a prostitute (that he had earlier seen as a child figure), but as the figure of solitude stepping out on the teeming streets of Tokyo, sad, alone, walking back into the faceless crowds of people, continuing his lonely, faceless existance. While not the bang-up action ending that accompanies the Brosnan movies, it would have been a true nod toward the Fleming Bond.

[SteVen Hendricks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Review - The Man With The Red Tattoo - Raymond Benson
Author Raymond Benson delivers his best stand alone Bond thriller to date with “The Man with the Red Tattoo.” With the return of the Walther PPK, it seems to be Benson's way of saying, "Let's just use what has always worked for Bond and enough with the self-conscious 'updating' of the character." In this way I think Red Tattoo is well ahead of the curve and just reinforces the fact that Raymond Benson is the best of all the post-Ian Fleming Bond authors. Red Tattoo has a straightforward plot but is not lacking in complexity of character. Just the opposite is true. Japan holds dark memories for Bond, and that aspect is not ignored. Benson uses the "ghosts" of Bond's past as a full-fledged complication. Fans will not be disappointed in how Benson weaves elements of the old Ian Fleming Bond into this current book, nor will they be disappointed in the action. Gunfights and fistfights abound... It's probably Benson's most violent book of the six that he wrote - the body count is quite high - but this seems to be in keeping with the Asian action movie environment the book frequently evokes. The villain's master plan is ingenious and is the best conceived caper of all the Bond villians, book or film, in quite some time. And speaking of films, have I mentioned that Red Tattoo would make an amazing Bond movie? For the seasoned Bond fan The Man With the Red Tattoo is the perfect James Bond book. For those who have yet to read a Raymond Benson Bond books and are looking for a classic cocktail of Bond action, suspense, and exotic locales, you would be well advised to start right here. Check it out!

[David]

There is a moment in this novel at which Bond, having undergone, as usual, an intense session of both physical and emotional violence, imagines in his head that he is back in the Japan of his younger days (You Only Live Twice), speaking with Kissy Suzuki, who calls him, rather touchingly, Taro-san (his cover name on that part of that mission). It is a rare moment of total emotional honesty in the fiction of 007. Some things about this novel place it among the best of the Bond stories; there are other moments which are weak, especially the conclusion. The figure of Yukio Mishima hovers over the entirety of the narrative, not always successfully. Perhaps the best thing to say about it is that I wish Raymond Benson had not decided at this point to put down the task of continuing the Bond series. I would like to have seen him take it further. The standalone single novels of the last 10 or so years are all interesting in their way but they lack the continuity of voice which, for better or for worse, weak or strong, characterized the Fleming books, the Gardner books, and the Benson books.

[John Yelverton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good James Bond novel that lives up to the standards of its predecessors. I especially enjoyed its embracing of "You Only Live Twice", rather than fleeing as far away from it and its canon disturbing issues as possible. My only complaint was the actual plot of using mosquitoes to poison people, because that really strained the bounds of credulity.

[Mark Bullen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I persevered hoping the book would get better but it didn't.
How did Benson ever get permission to continue the James Bond legacy?

[Nader Elhefnawy · Rating 4 out of 5]

After his prior, over-the-top Bond novel High Time to Kill Raymond Benson swung all the way around to a more grounded, more Fleming-esque adventure for his next Bond novel, DoubleShot. He followed that book up with his even more over-the-top Never Dream of Dying, and again, repeated his prior turn with another grounded, Fleming-esque adventure in The Man with the Red Tattoo.

Granted, some of the weaknesses of DoubleShot are present here--not least his evoking a political theme without developing it beyond the usual broad supervillainy. (Goro Yoshida is a former member of Yukio Mishima's Shield Society, whose personal protest against modern Japan has taken the form of international terrorism--apparently, a decades-long campaign that has included some deadly bombings, one of which was depicted in Never Dream of Dying.)

Nonetheless the effort on the whole is more successful this time around, relying less on hokey plot twists than DoubleShot did--the more grounded thrills on offer the freshest and most credible he achieved in his tenure (as in the intrigue on the train to Hokkaido, which manages to stand on its own in a series replete with them). The novel also offers Bensons' most effective use of older Bond characters (specifically, his incorporation of Tanaka from You Only Live Twice), and presents Benson's best travelogue to date as he zips about a good deal of the country that Bond did not see in his first visit (and the presentation of which is a far cry from the awkwardness of High Time to Kill).1

The result is that while, as I have remarked often before, I generally prefer the Bond adventures over the top, The Man with the Red Tattoo struck me as actually the strongest of Benson's books--and made me feel that he had just been hitting his stride with them when he was pulled off the job.

I even wondered what might have been had he been permitted to continue.

[Matt Raubenheimer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raymond Benson’s final James Bond novel returns 007 to Japan, where memories of his experiences from You Only Live Twice continue to linger, not least in the form of his old ally Tiger Tanaka who makes a welcome return in this novel.

The plot concerns a form of biological warfare involving a deadly disease and genetically modified mosquitoes as the agents of death. Bond also comes into close contact with Japanese yakuza gangs, culminating in Bond defending a G8 summit from attack by the aggressive insects and their deadly biological cargo. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the plot to create a pandemic using these mosquitoes does have an added feeling of jeopardy to a reader in 2024 with the global chaos still fresh in the memory.
Overall, this is probably one of the weaker ranking Benson novels for me. It isn’t badly written by any means, and it avoids some of the Benson elements that I’ve been less keen on (video game-like gadgets, and tacky sex scenes) but the overall plot was not as gripping as the likes of High Time to Kill, and I personally found it a little hard to keep track of all the yakuza characters. The one exception to that is the henchman known as Kappa. He is probably the most memorable character in the novel. His ‘trojan horse’ scene was a particular highlight of the book for me, as was the scene where he releases mosquitoes on the train.

Bond has a relationship with a Japanese agent that was a little reminiscent of his relationship with Aki in the film version of You Only Live Twice, and it was a sad but somewhat predictable fate which befell her.

Benson’s run of 6 original novels ends on a bit of an average book in my opinion, but I think he did a pretty good job of keeping the literary Bond series going through the Pierce Brosnan era, blending Brosnan style action with a more Fleming-like representation of the Bond character.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3

The final book by RB in his Bond series and I thought this was another fairly solid entry. Ever since John Gardner brought Bond into the present (or at least the present at time of writing) all of the books have struggled with either including links to Flemings original books or just ignoring them. The passage of time is such that the links very rarely work well. In this case with a story being set in Japan and featuring the return of Tiger Tanaka, look backs were probably unavoidable. They are not too intrusive and RB keeps the story pace quite high to try and avoid the reader thinking about the ages of the main characters.
The story was an interesting one and I could easily see it being adapted for the film series, although there would probably be some complaints from the Japanese government as the main villain is a right wing nationalist and the story implies the majority of large companies have links to the criminal underworld.
I think that one of the major benefits of both RB and the Gardner novels are that both authors were able to consistently expand on the history and personalities of Bond and the other continuing characters over time, the current approach of essentially one book and done for each author does mean the reader has no real idea what to expect when a new book is published.
The only downside for some readers is perhaps the travelogue approach taken regarding the scene setting for Japan (and local history customs etc) but I admit I had no problem with it.

Overall a recommendation although would probably suggest reading the RB novels in published order to see how his stories and characters develop.

[Stuart Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A British citizen and his Japanese family all die of a strange disease and James Bond is sent to find out if there is anything nefarious behind it. This means going to Japan, which leaves Bond with some mixed feelings since he hasn't been there since You Only Live Twice and that time he nearly died, lost his memory, and abandoned Kissy Suzuki. But he gets to meet up with Tiger Tanaka so all is well. Turns out the dead family was killed by an unknown strain of the West Nile Virus. All this leads Bond to the trail of the Yakuza and especially Goro Yoshida, who Bond had been looking for ever since the previous novel. Bond needs to wrap it all up quick because in a few days the G8 Summit will be in town.

We get all the James Bond trappings. Good descriptions of his wardrobe. Detailed descriptions of his every meal. (Note: James Bond, like every civilized human, does not care for uncooked fish) He carries a Walther PPK and drives a DB5. We watch him do his morning calisthenics and take his hot and cold showers. We get a massive travelogue of much of Japan. James Bond sexes up some slinky Japanese girls, drinks lots of sake, has a bath, rides a train, shoots some guys, beats up some guys, blows up some guys, and fights mosquitos, bears, and a frog.

Benson nicely meshes this work with Fleming's. All the Easter eggs from previous novels plus some updating while retaining the basic psychotic madman and his crazy plot.

[Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Benson's penultimate Bond adventure may be the closest he has come to emulating Fleming, but whIle it is somewhat streamlined and attempts to connect with the past, something is lacking. The story never really gets traction and feels a bit stilted. Compared to Gardner, Benson's run on the Bond literary franchise has been extremely uneven, almost to the point where it felt like different writers were working under a pseudonym. And in the past where some of his stories have suffered from lack of exposition, here there tends to be a bit too much. Also the tone of the story is uneven at times, especially the odd moments where the author has Bond deliver not-so-pithy one-liners that are spread about unevenly, so they feel forced and out of place.

[Martyn Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun.

This is a Bond book that truly doesn’t pause for breath. Right from the get go the pace is set and maintained in an enjoyable bio-engineered terrorist Yakuza plot that takes you all over Japan. From the Buddha temples and mountains to high speed trains and sordid Soaplands. It goes everywhere at classic Bond style breakneck action all accompanied by implausible plots and henchmen.

The Kappa midget henchman is straight out of Oddjob territory and a fantastic addition to the list of adversaries, but none are more frightening than the near invisible, infected mosquitoes that can kill you in 6 hours after being bitten.

Recommended?: if you like your Bond movies and books, this is right up there to keep you entertained for a few hours. One of Benson’s best.

[John Peel · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Bond returns to Japan, last visited in "You Only Live Twice", and reunites with Tiger Tanaka in this adventure. A Japanese/English family have all died suddenly of a mysterious strain of West Nile virus. Bond wonders if it is linked with the terrorist he is after, Goro Yoshida. But it's certainly related to the yakuza, the Japanese gangs. Now he has to find the missing daughter of the family and stop a plot to cause chaos and spread a loathsome disease.

Benson gets the setting and scenery beautifully correct in this very Flemingesque novel. Plenty of action and fun, and a new villainous sidekick that would give even Oddjob a pause.

[Tony Drummond · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best things about the Raymond Benson Bond books is that they tend to be set in a single country and we get a great exploration of the country's culture and locations. This is particularly the case with this book set in Japan.

We also have a realistic villain plot and the right balance between action and narrative. Most experienced Bond fans will probably guess the books conclusion from about half way in.

A good light read that has the right Bond elements.

[Paul Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an adequate novel but nowhere near the best of James Bond. The descriptions of Japan, and Japanese culture are excellent, and the dwarf henchman is memorable. The real problem is that the eponymous villain rarely appears and his threat is lessened by underlings who are less than convinced by his mad proposa

[Jeff Lacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and easy read

This is an entertaining Bond novel. It began with an electric pace. Later, sentences could have been tightened up. But the plot was measured well, and there were well conceived characters. Is the novel worth reading? Well, sure. It is a quick read, certainly a weekend or holiday read. Also, Simon Vance does a fine job with the Audible performance.

[Christopher M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raymond Benson is my favourite Bond sequels author, but this isn't his best work. The villains' evil plan is at once simple and overly complicated, and leads to a pointless travelogue with some generic and formulaic plot beats. Plus, reading it now, the description of a potential global pandemic has got nothing on the real thing!

[Martin Tiller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read. But the action is quick and straight to the point.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow and too many repetition

[Donn Lorber · Rating 3 out of 5]

James Bond in Japan during aG7 conference, keeping the attendees safe and preventing a mass pandemic

[Darcee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Benson writes a pretty good Bond story.

[James Hein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haven't done Bond for a long time.

Audio Book

A good new Bond story

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong conclusion to Benson's run of (original) 007 novels. Nice to see the return of Tiger Tanaka.

[Noble Lemieux · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical Bond. Quick read. Didn’t hate it.

[David Kelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. I like kappa as a villain.