The mystery of THE KILLING ZONE

I first posted this in 2007, but as The Book Bond now has a larger readership, I thought this was worth a re-post for those who have never heard of this literary Bond curiosity. Enjoy.

One of the more mysterious stories in the world of the literary James Bond is that of the little-known 007 novel The Killing Zone by Jim Hatfield. The 251 page novel tells the story of 007 going after a drug lord in Mexico after he murders Bond’s friend and colleague, Bill Tanner. It's a plotline strikingly similar to the film Licence To Kill (still four years away when The Killing Zone was "published"), and includes the surprise reappearance of Major Anya Amasova from The Spy Who Loved Me. It also includes the even more surprising death of James Bond in its final pages!

The Killing Zone appeared in 1985 -- the year official continuation novelist John Gardner had off -- and claims on its copyright page to be officially licensed by Glidrose Publications (now Ian Fleming Publications). But this book is far from official.

The Killing Zone was the creation of Jim Hatfield, a legitimate author of several books, most notably of the infamous George W. Bush biography, Fortunate Son, which claimed the former U.S. president was once arrested for cocaine possession. He was also a man who had his fair share of problems with the law.

The story (as uncovered by the now defunct 007Forever website) is that Hatfield told co-workers he had been named the new James Bond continuation author. In order to keep his ruse alive, he wrote and self-published The Killing Zone, which on close examination is a bizarre patchwork of original material mixed with plagiarized passages from the Bond novels by John Pearson and John Gardner and other spy novels.

Even the cover art is a patchwork forgery. Despite the claim on the back of the book that it was designed and hand lettered by David Gatti, the "James Bond" was lifted from the U.S. paperback edition of James Bond The Authorized Biography and the title design was taken from a novel of the same name by William Crawford Woods (I've yet to discover the source of the blood spots).

Despite all this, The Killing Zone is not entirely without Bondian merit. It features some clever action scenes, good use of Mexican locales (Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, Sierra Madre), and a strong villain in Klaus Dobermann. The return of Triple X is fun in a fan fiction sort of way, but Hatfield does go a step too far with the name of his Bond Girl: Lotta Head.

Precisely how many copies of The Killing Zone were printed is not known. There have been rumors of large stashes tucked away, but like so much with Hatfield, the truth is elusive. Thus far, only two copies of The Killing Zone have ever surfaced, both signed by Hatfield to female co-workers. (I own one of these two copies, which I purchased from a mysterious seller, "A. Smith," on eBay in 2000.)

Plagued by problems with alcohol and facing arrest for credit card fraud, Jim Hatfield committed suicide in an Arkansas motel in 2001. Near the end, Hatfield believed he was under surveillance by the Bush administration, and there are those who suggest he was actually murdered by the minions of George W. Bush.

It all sounds like something out of a James Bond novel.

Spy novel pulled for plagiarizing Fleming and Gardner

The L.A. Times reports that the new spy novel, Assassin of Secrets by Q.R. Markham, was pulled today after publisher Mulholland Books, an imprint of Little, Brown, said it discovered that numerous passages where "lifted from a variety of classic and contemporary spy novels", including the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming and John Gardner.

In a statement, Michael Pietsch, executive vice president and publisher of Little, Brown and Co., said: "Upon investigation, it was clear the passages in question were lifted, and Little, Brown determined that the only course of action was to immediately recall books from retailers across the country."

While the publisher did not say how they discovered the plagiarism, some of the detective work appears to belong to the crew over at the CommanderBond.net forums, who spotted several passages in the book that where lifted directly from John Gardner's Licence Renewed and Nobody Lives Forever.

Even the author's name, Q.R. Markham, appears to be lifted from a Bond novel. "Robert Markham" was the pseudonym used by Kingsley Amis for his continuation Bond novel, Colonel Sun.

Simon Gardner, son of the late John Gardner, wrote today on Facebook:

"I do hope the exposure of this act of plagiarism will act as a lesson to others that think they might try to dupe publishers and the public alike. Whether the authors are alive or dead, there are enough fans of popular fiction to come down fast and hard on anyone who tries to rip off their favourite authors. That is the power of fans and I salute and thank you all on behalf of John Edmund Gardner."

Now I think we need to find out who is hiding behind the name Q.R. Markham?

UPDATE: According to publishers Marketplace news director Sarah Weinman, Q.R. Markham is really Quentin Rowan, a co-owner of Spoonbill & Sugartown in Williamsburg. The blog Reluctant Habits (which posted his photo below) reveals that he also plagiarized some of Raymond Benson's Bond work.

"Q.R. Markham" aka Quentin Rowan

Problems with Titans 'Cars of the Gardner Era' extra

First off, I love these Titan reprints and I'm thrilled they are now doing the original Bond stories. For a Bond fan, this is a dream come true -- original 007 stories not seen since the 70s collected together for the first time. Okay, some of these tales get a little Sci-Fi, but that was the era and they are still fun as heck.

These books also include nice extras. In this latest edition, The Golden Ghost, we get a look at Bonds cars with a fine article about the cars of the Ian Fleming novels by David Leigh. But then there's a retrospective of the cars of the Gardner era. Now, being a Gardner fan, I was excited about a definitive look at the Gardner cars. Unfortunately, this particular article by James Page is seriously deficient and, for me personally, a little disconcerting.

The article is basically a rehash (i.e., a pretty blatant lift) of my own article about Saabs in the Gardner era first published on CBn in 2004 and later in 007 Magazine. Now, I guess there's nothing wrong with using some of the facts from my article (even though it’s totally unsourced and I was not contacted by the author or Titan about this), but isn't this supposed to be an article about the CARS of the Gardner era? Why so much focus on Saabs? Unless, of course, the only source here was my own article.

For example, reading this article one gets the impression the Bentley Mulsanne Turbo appeared in just one novel, Role of Honor. This isn't true. The Bentley is the car that appears more than any other in the Gardner canon, and plays a major role in Nobody Lives Forever and No Deals Mr. Bond. Yet all the author says about these two books is that "Gardner put Bond back into a Saab." Sure, Bond rented a Saab for two brief sections of these books (which, of course, I noted in my Saab article), but he primarily drove the Bentley. He also rented a BMW in No Deals Mr. Bond. Why no mention of that if rental cars are part of this examination? Maybe because I didn't mention it in my article?

And if we're including rentals cars (and aren't all Bonds cars rentals in a sense), where's the BMW 528i and the Lancia from Win Lose or Die? Or the Toyota Previa from Death is Forever; the BMW from Never Send Flowers; the VW Corrado from SeaFire; and the Ford Taurus from COLD? Not one of these cars gets a mention, yet we do learn M drove a Saab 9000 in The Man From Barbarossa. Again, something that's nice to know when talking about Saabs in the Gardner era (and that's why I noted it in my article), but, again, is this article about Saabs in the Gardner era or the cars? Certainly this valuable space could have been used to talk about even one of the many other cars that Bond drove instead of the one obscure Saab appearance noted in my article (notice a pattern here?).

And what about Bond's second Bentley? Gardner upgraded Bond's Bentley to a Turbo R in a later book. For an article that's supposed to be a definitive look at the Gardner "cars," this is a pretty shocking omission! I've always wondered if this second Bentley was actually a new Bentley or a mistake in name. Raymond Benson carried it over into his books as new car. This would have been something interesting to at least note or, better yet, do a little research and solve the mystery. Of course, I didn't tackle this in my Saab article because it wasn't relevant. Mr. Page doesn't mention the existence of the second Bentley in his "cars of the Gardner era" because...well...I think we can now figure that one out.

Let's hope Titan is a little more careful with future contributions (and contributors).