The Bottom Line: The good times roll in License to Die, perhaps the best entry yet in Haris Orkin’s action-packed, fun and touching Bond satire series.
We first met international super spy James Flynn in Orkin’s hilarious James Bond parody Goldhammer. As a resident of a City of Roses Psychiatric Institute, he believed he was at the headquarters of His Majesty’s Secret Service. License to Die takes Flynn to a far scarier place: Hornitos State Mental Hospital, where he’ll soon be in residence alongside mass murderers and rapists.
Orkin delivers the first delicious ode to bond early, as Flynn confronts “M” – who in reality is the facility director – with a speech about his status as a “Double-O” in which he begs to be sent out into the world: “I know some see us as brutal relics of a bygone age…Unsheathe me. Unleash me. Loose me on our enemies.”
LIttle does Flynn know that his next “mission” has already been decided. The man behind his transfer to Hornitos is Mendoza, a sicario whose one-word name is synonymous with terror. He lives for money, power and respect, but he never could intimidate Flynn (“it’s not easy to scare batshit crazy”). But now Mendoza – along with a crooked ex-LAPD detective and one of Flynn’s relatives – has arranged for Flynn to be transferred there. Killing Flynn would mean earning the respect of Francisco Goolardo, head of the Goolardo cartel.
But is Flynn skilled enough – and lucky enough – to escape his fate? To do that, he’ll need more than luck and skill. He’ll also need help from the outside.
That means getting friend Sancho, who has been his sidekick through several wacky adventures, to come to his aid. But Sancho, who recently graduated from nursing school and is now a full-time psychiatric nurse, has promised his father-in-law that those days are over. Fortunately, Flynn’s gift of a Bond-esque Aston Martin – and genuine affection – still have plenty of currency. In this latest series entry, Orkin has fully turned Sancho himself into a fully developed double-agent – and one whose heart is just as big as his adoration for Flynn.
In a world with plenty of darkness, Orkin has created yet another romp with characters that readers will love to spend time with.
