Booktalk- -Jeffrey Deaver

I agree with Baker’s statement; a booktalk relies on tone of voice and positive nonverbal behavior when persuading patrons to read the book. If you’ve read the book then with that experience it gives the story more importance and why it was selected for the library. Patrons know that the librarian is not wasting their time with a booktalk.

A  Booktalk on Jeffrey Deaver’s Carte Blanche: The New James Bond Novel (approx. 7 min.)

We love James Bond.  He’s spy royalty!

 (Hold up Carte Blanche and as I talk, I show the audience that in the back of the book there is a section describing Ian Fleming and his work.)

At the back of Jeffrey Deaver’s book, Carte Blanche, there is a section about Ian Fleming.  In 1952 at his Jamaican vacation home known as Goldeneye, he created the James Bond character in the spy thriller titled Casino Royale.  Until his heart failure in 1964, Fleming produced a novel a year about the noted British agent 007. 

We know much about Bond.  He is 6-foot and lean.  His interests are fast cars, international hotels and resorts, his favorite drink, whisky, his only gun, the Walther, and his involvement with women.

(Close the book and show the cover to the audience.) 

In this new James Bond novel by North Carolina native Jeffrey Deaver, who is a spy thriller novelist in his own right, is the fifth author to continue the James Bond phenomenon.  James Bond, in Deaver’s novel, is older and a veteran of the Afghan War.  He operates more freely since the British Secret Intelligence has reorganized for the 21^st century.  In this novel, Bond has a 3-inch facial scar; he has dropped his cigarettes and is more tech savvy; and yes, there is still “M” in the home office.  The direction of the new Bond work is more reflective besides the traditional action plot.  At his home one day with his attractive date, Philly, Bond responds to her questioning of a steel bullet placed upon the fireplace mantle-- the only memory he has of his fatal parents’ skiing accident where the bullet was placed alongside their bodies.  In this book, Deaver reveals a credible explanation of the secret of Bond’s parents’ lives.

(Put the book down.)

This book is written into seven sections: Sunday through Friday.  In various exotic locations Bond is pursuing a man known as Noah from the name that was identified in a decrypted message the British Intelligence home office detected the day before, and it further gave these additional facts:  Novi Sad, Serbia, an incident on the twentieth, estimated many casualties, and British interests affected. A second message revealed further additional information: Sunday, the Rostilj restaurant, the meeting time at 20:00, and signed off as “I am 6-feet and have an Irish accent”.  

(Pick up the book and start finding the first chapter of the book as if you are retelling the first few chapters and then place it down again.)

James Bond then recalls step-by-step the Novi Sad incident, and I would like to go through it as well for us.  This part of the story is several chapters long so I am summarizing.

Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia, and it includes a part of the famous railway express that joins the Danube River.  On this particular Sunday this rail trip has a hazmat chemical traincar along with the rest; and that if the train became derailed, the toxic car would explode and penetrate the air with a poisonous gas which would thus kill thousands. 

From London, Bond is assigned to “Incident Twenty”-- the event being on the twentieth of the month. He is presently waiting in the back of the bar for the Irishman’s arrival and meeting with his partner at the well-known Rostilj restaurant.  Bond sees that the target is the train as he notices the additional hazmat chemical car.  Bond’s theory is that the hazardous material from the railcar is the one that the Irishman will try to spill into the Danube. With a monocular, Bond further sees that the train is nearing the switch rails and is picking up speed from coming down from the mountainside.  He attempts to attract the engineer’s attention by calmly squatting on the track directly in front of the locomotive, and the train is moving fifty miles an hour.  The engineer sees Bond’s position and uses the train’s horn while adding on the brakes.   Bond immediately jumps off the track into the ditch nearby as he throws a small IED into the tracks in front of the diesel. There is such a screeching noise! The train then slips off the track and digs into the soft soil beside the track.  Somehow the train remains upright and the hazmat train car unharmed.

While Bond relates to the home office of the matter, Bond finds a message on the screen from mobile.  The text reads:  “Get out of Serbia; the Serbian agent assigned to you in Incident 20 operation died, and the Serbs are looking for you in an arrest for a recent train wreck.  Evacuate now!” (pp. 13-49). 

(Pause for the moment for the audience to grasp the last line.  Now show the audience the group of other spy thrillers that are placed nearby.  As you say the name of the author, pick up the corresponding book and then quickly lay it down, then the next one and so forth.)

Spy tales give that “good versus evil” theme.  Besides Fleming and Deaver as spy novelists, I would recommend other writers such as W.E. B. Griffin, Robert Ludlum, and Alan Furst. Their fictional spy characters are skillful and cautious in fulfilling their missions.  These authors’ goal is to provide us with good entertainment by making us truly believe in heroes.