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The Killing Zone is an unauthorised James Bond novel by Jim Hatfield. It was privately published in paperback in 1985 under the guise that it was officially sanctioned by Glidrose Publications (later Ian Fleming Publications), the company that held the rights to publish James Bond literary works. At the time, the official author of the Bond series was John Gardner who wrote from 1981 to 1996.

It was first published in the United Kingdom as "A Charter Book" but is no longer in print. The text is available on the Internet, however.

22-kill zone front

Plot[]

The novel begins with the murder of Bill Tanner by Klaus Doberman, a German-South American drug lord. Enraged by his friend's death, Bond disobeys his official orders to get revenge. According to the cover blurb on the back of the book, "In this new high voltage spy thriller, Secret Agent 007 must "liquidate" ruthless billionaire kingpin Klaus Doberman. But James Bond has his hands full as he battles a luscious lady assassin who offers lethal love Russian style and a slit-eyed Oriental sadist who is an elusive and deadly Ninja. Aided by his confederate Lotta Head and his old CIA buddy Felix Leiter, 007 is pitted against Klaus Doberman in his heavily armed fortress high in the Mexican Sierra Madres ... in the most bloodcurdling death duel in the great Bond saga."

Background[]

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 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.

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