Sometimes the Best Bond for a Job is a Jane ... Jane Bond. "What's the story on Bond?" "Your man is a homicidal depressive paranoiac," the doctor reported. "I know that. I want to know what's wrong with him! And be straight with me, man. No medical mumbo jumbo." "He's lost his nerve." N. had suspected as much. After a long while spent staring at the jagged skyline of London, N. came to a decision. He had no other choice but to go through with Pumpernickel's ridiculous plan. Enter Bond, Jane Bond, James's lesbian twin sister and haoless bookstore employee, who steps in to masquerade as her brother at an awards ceremony with the queen. But when the dastardly Sons of Britain (S.O.B.s), a nefarious fraternity plotting to bring the Duke and Duchess of Windsor back to power, show up, it's up to some unexpected heros to save the day. The Powder Puff Girls -- makeup salespersons by day, secret agents by night -- step in to secure the future of Britain while Jane keeps her brother's reputation intact...both in and out of the bedroom! Ian Fleming's bestselling thrillers relied for their appeal on the attractions of danger, especially in the sexual allure of their handsome, fearless, hardhearted hero, James Bond. Although the Bond of the movies is as devoted a womanizer as the character in the books, his sadistic tendencies are played down, as is his mental instability. In the most recent films, even the ubiquitous Bond cigarette is gone. Is nothing sacred? Now Mabel Maney's giddy and outrageous spoof of the Bond books ousts the main character himself. As her story opens, James has been locked away in a Swiss sanitarium, having at last "lost his nerve." The British Secret Service plots to recruit his bookish, unambitious lesbian twin sister, Jane, hoping that in disguise, she will be a convincing stand-in for the world-famous agent. Although thrilled by the tailored suit the government provides, Jane is a reluctant spy. What she doesn't know is that her new girlfriend, Bridget, ostensibly a cosmetic sales girl, is in fact a feminist counterspy struggling to foil a fascist scheme to put the aging Duke and Duchess of Windsor on the throne. Will Bridget misplace her top-secret cipher panties in a moment of passion? Can Jane avoid being killed for England? Can she keep the suit? With her usual flair for period detail, Maney ( The Case of the Good-for-Nothing Girlfriend ) paints a vivid, irreverent picture of the Bond era and spoofs Fleming's lingering romance with Empire. --Regina Marler This delightfully diversionary romp through the British spy world of the 1960s features Jane Bond, the lesbian twin sister of James Bond, of 007 fame. As it happens, brother James is indisposed, and because of a national security crisis stemming from a group calling itself the Sons of Britain, the British intelligence office calls on Jane Bond to impersonate James. She must help deflect the Sons' plot to remove the queen from the throne and in her place install the former king, Edward VIII, now in French exile as the duke of Windsor. The Sons have nothing personal against the queen, but they feel the crown should be worn by a man--hence their planned enthronement of the former king. Maney knows her Bond lore and British social and political life, and she knows how to tell an effective spy story, all of which adds up to a smart, funny, compelling yarn. Brad Hooper Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "Light, breezy and undemanding...the way a good summer book should be." - Planet Q Sometimes the Best Bond for a Job is a Jane ... Jane Bond. "What's the story on Bond?" "Your man is a homicidal depressive paranoiac," the doctor reported. "I know that. I want to know what's wrong with him! And be straight with me, man. No medical mumbo jumbo." "He's lost his nerve." N. had suspected as much. After a long while spent staring at the jagged skyline of London, N. came to a decision. He had no other choice but to go through with Pumpernickel's ridiculous plan. Enter Bond, Jane Bond, James's lesbian twin sister and haoless bookstore employee, who steps in to masquerade as her brother at an awards ceremony with the queen. But when the dastardly Sons of Britain (S.O.B.s), a nefarious fraternity plotting to bring the Duke and Duchess of Windsor back to power, show up, it's up to some unexpected heros to save the day. The Powder Puff Girls -- makeup salespersons by day, secret agents by night -- step in to secure the future of Britain while Jane keeps her brother's reputation intact...both in and out of the bedroom! Mabel Maney, author of the Nancy Clue and Hardly Boys mystery series, lives in San Francisco, California.