The Scribe who Stole Bond AKA The name's Chase, Jonathon Chase

Q R Markham AKA Quentin Rowan

Q.R. Markham’s Assassin of Secrets — has been  pulled after Markham’s publisher, Mulholland Books, had determined that Markham had lifted his text from other sources.Yep, this  crooked scribe had taken his influence from the successful James Bond series - problem was his influence stretched to plain and simple theft. And he didn't really try and hide it - even the pen name he chose Q R Markham is  a lift from Robert Markham which was the pen name Kingsley Amis used for his one Bond novel, Colonel Sun.

The publishers didn't notice the deception and it was online forum, Commanderbond.net who exposed the scribe who should have known better. CommanderBond.net , spotted several passages in the book that where lifted directly from John Gardner's Licence Renewed and Nobody Lives Forever.


"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." Simon Gardner, son of Bond continuation author, John Gardner.

Below are some of the lifts from official Bond novels

Markham, P. 18:: “They’re reportedly responsible for the theft of those military maps from Hanoi from the Pentagon last month. A well-protected Mafia don was murdered about a year ago in Cuba. Zero Directorate supposedly supplied the hit man for that job.”


Taken from Raymond Benson’s High Time to Kill: “The maps disappeared from right under the noses of highly trained security personnel. A well-protected Mafia don was murdered about a year ago in Sicily. The Union supposedly supplied the hit man for that job.”

Markham, P. 26: “In the past, he had often found himself bored by the earnest young men who inhabited the workshops and testing areas of G Branch, but the times were changing. Within a week of her arrival, Frnakie had become the target of many seductive attempts by unmarried officers of all ages. Chase had noticed her, and heard the reports. Word was the colder side of Frankie’s personality was uppermost in her off-duty hours.”


From John Gardner, License Renewed: “In the past, he had often found himself bored by the earnest young men who inhabited the workshops and testing areas of Q Branch, but times were changing. Within a week of her arrival, Q Branch had accorded its new executive the nickname of Q’ute, for even in so short a time she had become the target of many seductive attempts by unmarried officers of all ages. Bond had noticed her, and heard the reports. Word was that the colder side of Q’ute’s personality was uppermost in her off-duty hours.”

The curious thing is that the book will now become a sought after collectors items with Bond fans

Synopsis

Mulholland Books presents...ASSASSIN OF SECRETS The agent: Jonathan Chase, the United States' top operative. He will protect and serve his country at all costs. The target: the Zero Directorate, a shadowy organisation who are kidnapping, interrogating and murdering spies. He knows that they will come for him...but not if he finds them first. Chase is on the hunt. But the Directorate lies in wait, and the inescapable truth is that the closer he gets to stopping his enemies, the closer his enemies get to him.

Altered histories and the novella's comeback

Years ago – around the time of Tommyknockers  (1987) I stopped reading Stephen King – prior to that point I’d been a voracious fan of King’s work but Tommyknockers bored me. I did flirt with some of his later books but it wasn’t until Cell that I got back into King. I also thought last year’s collection, Full Dark, No Stars was excellent – that collection was made up of four novellas, though back in the day these stories would have qualified as novels and so I was eager for King’s new book but also a bit weary because I’d heard it was another thousand pager.

The thing is that sometime around the late 1980′s publishers seemed to drop short novels from their lists as if the number of pages equated with value for money. Of course this was stupid  – a story has a natural length whether it is fifty pages of five hundred pages but the high and mighty publishing industry didn’t see it that way and the result was  that many books were padded out in order to extend a story, best told in 200 pages, into 500+ pages. And King has often been as guilty of padding out his books as anyone else, but it mustn’t be forgotten that King has written some excellent longer works – It, The Stand,  Salem’s Lot to name but a few of a long list.

“King’s next book, due out in November, will be titled 11/22/63 – the date Kennedy was shot dead while travelling in an open-topped presidential limousine in Dallas, Texas – and will feature a time-travelling Maine schoolteacher, Jake Epping, who tries to prevent the killing.” From The Guardian Newspaper.

UK version goes for photographic cover

Today I bought King’s new book 11/22/63 – priced up at £19.99 I got in in W H Smith’s for £9.99 -  part of a special offer. The books comes in at 700 plus pages and also features a tantalizingly snippet of news regarding a new Dark Tower book to be published next spring, and it’s a safe bet that readers will get a hernia lugging it around. The current wisdom is that the novella is making a comeback, but Stephen King is in a position where he doesn’t need to follow the leader and can be true to himself as an artist, can craft a story without considering market trends.

And so as I sit down to read King’s new mammoth tome, let’s hope the story warrants the length.

New Bond is Skyfall.

Despite reports that the next James Bond movie would be entitled, Red Sky at Night, it has now been officially announced the the title of the forthcoming 007 movie is Skyfall.

The podcast of the fantastic

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The highlight of the first episode is an interview with horror writer, Guy N. Smith and it’s now live, available on iTunes and everywhere else.

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Future episodes will find us interviewing more luminaries associated with the genres we cover so by supporting us you will help is create a show that is both unique and indespensible.

For our interview with Guy I travelled into Shropshire’s Black Hills – it was a very picturesque route from my base in South Wales which involved driving though the Brecon Beacons, Abergavenny, Hereford, Leominster, Knighton and the Black Hills beyond. Some of the views on the route were breathtaking.

When I arrived at Guy’s home I was greeted cordially and then shown around Guy’s library where I stared in wonder at the vast collection of vintage publications – the photograph at the top of this article was taking in Guy’s loft which has been converted into a grand looking library. The interview itself went really well l with Guy chatting away about everything from his bestselling series, The Crabs to his New English Library days and pretty much everything in between. So tune in folks – visit the Chillerthriller website HERE Susbscribe to us in iTunes Visit Guy N. Smith HERE

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