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Literary Tag


Never Send Flowers - Small Title NovelLocationsEquipmentCharacters


Never Send Flowers, first published in 1993, was the thirteenth novel by John Gardner featuring Ian Fleming's secret agent, James Bond (including Gardner's novelization of Licence to Kill). Carrying the Glidrose Publications copyright, it was first published in the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton and in the United States by Putnam.

Synopsis[]

Series of assassinations is concluded when MI5 agent Laura March is poisoned in Switzerland, prompting M to ask James Bond to investigate her death. His investigations with Swiss agent "Flicka" von Grüsse into Laura March's past unearths a dangerous family secret, with the trail leading to a former international stage actor, David Dragonpol.

Plot summary[]

Prologue and Briefing[]

A series of murders of officials of various degrees in the world, ending with an MI5 operative named Laura March, who was poisoned in Grindelwald with a sting of tetradotoxin.

As MI5 has no authority to investigate beyond the British borders, they ask MI6 to investigate March's murder, to which James Bond gets assigned to. For his mission, Bond will be accompanied by Fredricka "Flicka" von Grüsse, a comely investigator from the Swiss Security Service. She tells Bond that Laura was supposedly in the company of her brother David March, who a few years earlier had been a ruthless serial killer, condemned to detention in a criminal asylum. However, David has been dead for several years.

Switzerland[]

Bond and Flicka continue the investigation in the hotel that hosted the Ms. March. There, they find disturbing love letters between Laura and David. Shocked by the discovery, the two let off steam with an intense sexual performance, during which Bond remembers how much he had loved his unfortunate wife Tracy in the Swiss mountains.

The next morning Bond discovers that Laura's letter to David has disappeared -- stolen during the night. Investigations continue at the crime scene with the help of Bodo Lempke of the Interlaken police. But everything is interrupted when the communication arrives, which tells that Bond and Flicka are removed from case, due to the disappearance of evidence and hotel receiving various complaints about Bond and Flicka's noisy love-making.

England, funeral[]

Having returned to London, Bond gets lambasted by M. Afterwards, Bond goes on a date with Carmel Chantry, an MI5 agent who was a friend of Laura's. She informs Bond that MI5 was trying to hide Laura's parentage and that, for some years, she had been having a relationship with the actor David Dragonpol, which ended a few weeks ago.

The secret agent meets Flicka again and attend Laura March's funeral. Despite the family's request not to bring flowers, some flowers appear at the ceremony, with Bond is noticing some white roses with deep scarlet veins.

He immediately calls some of his contacts in various Secret Services and discovers that similar "hybrid roses" were present at the funerals of the victims before Laura. Based on Laura's relationship with David Dragopol, Bond leaves with Flicka to go to Rhine, to the Schloss Drache Castle, where Dragopol resides.

Rhine[]

Bond and Flicka arrive to Scholls Drache and introduce themselves to David Dragonpol, posing as Laura's colleagues. Dragopol is moved and shows them the castle, which he has turned into a theater museum. During dinner they meet Maeve Horton, David Dragonpol's widowed sister who takes care of the garden and experiments with roses.

Flicka tells Bond about the Swiss police's suspicions of Dragonpol as a terrorist, but the final clue is Maeve Dragonpol's interest in hybrid roses.

They bring up the locked doors to Dragonpol and he blames it on the butler, claiming that he is suspicious of visitors. Sneaking into the secret rooms of the villa, they discover that Dragonpol is passionate about political attacks and collects macabre memories of them. They find plans indicating three attacks, one against Kiri Te Kanawa in Milan, Yasser Arafat in Athens and unknown target in Paris. It is believed that the one in Milan will occur.

Milan & Athens[]

Once in Milan, Bond and Flicka are accompanied by Bodo Lempke to a meeting at Villa d'Este with M and Gianfranco Orsini, the head of the Italian Secret Service. Dragonpol is now officially suspected of being the perpetrator of the assassinations and of organizing an attack in Milan.

M gives Bond and Flicka the new mission to become sacrificial lambs for Dragonpol in Milan. By the lake, Bond gives a sapphire to Flicka declaring his love for her.

Caramel Chantry tells Bond that she can help to apprehend Dragonpol, and arranges a meeting with him at the rooftop of Milan Cathedral. However this ends in the death of Mr. Dragonpol and Ms. Chantry, as it is revealed that David had been hiding a twin Brother named Daniel.

Daniel is brought in for questioning, who reveals that David was born deaf and mute and was therefore kept a secret by the family, but regained hearing and speech after an accident. He became obsessed with becoming the best actor, but had also started assassinating people. The murder of his brother was his way of escaping guilt.

Convinced that they have closed the case, Bond and Flicka leave for Athens, where they are subjected to an attack from which they are miraculously saved: next to them lie white roses tinged with scarlet.

They thus discover that Daniel is actually David, who has escaped from Italians' custody. Additionally, Maeve is also no longer to be found. Summoned by M, they are informed that Ben, the head of EuroDisney's security service, is investigating a possible attack on Princess Diana during her visit to the amusement park. Bond figures that, based on Dragopol planning an attack on Paris, that the Princess is the next target, and heads there.

Finale[]

Precisely at EuroDisney in Paris Bond challenges Dragonpol's delusions for the last time. Dragopol hopes to kill them with explosives in the water at the "Mark Twain Riverboat". Dragopol is killed when Bond shoots and ignites an explosive barrel in the water that he and Dragonpol had been fighting in, which the latter intended to kill Diana with.

Flicka finally manages to discover Maeve Horton among her photographers and arrest her, after appearing at a press conference with Diana and the princes with a grenade in her bag.

The novel ends with M asking if he and Flicka are to be wed. Bond states that there is a possibility, but he politely asks his superior not to send flowers to the wedding.

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