Deaver pens new James Bond novel

The new 007 book will hit the shelves on Thursday after a promotion ceremony held at London's refurbished, vaulted St. Pancras train station.

Best known for his Kathryn Dance and Lincoln Rhyme, Deaver said he did plenty of research to get into the mind of a quintessentially English character.

"I became a Brit for about the eight months it took me to write the book," he told Reuters.

The writer added that although his previous books had very much in common with Ian Fleming's Bond stories, Carte Blanche presents an extra challenge.

"I know what my fans want, the millions of Jeffery Deaver fans around the world," he said.

"They want a book that is essentially a roller coaster, moves very quickly, lots of twists and turns, big surprise ending. Well, that's what Carte Blanche is going to be,” he went on to say, noting "I, of course, re-read all the James Bond novels and I think I had a very good sense of how to bring his character into my story.

The new Bond novel is set in present day and takes readers to exotic places like Serbia and Dubai.

"For my readers I think there's an immediacy to books set in the present day," the author explained. "I want a book to be the most intense emotional experience it can be.

"If you go back to a period piece we don't really get the sweaty palms, we don't sit on the edge of our seats quite so much as if what Bond is solving today could be a problem, a terror, a threat that we all face every day,” said Deaver.

Deaver, however, pointed out that the immediacy did not mean that he tried to convey any political point of view about real-life events.

"In Carte Blanche, we certainly do touch on real life events to some extent, but Ernest Hemingway once said 'if you want to send a message, go to Western Union, don't put it in your novel'."

Deaver has written 28 novels so far and sold over 20 million books worldwide. He won the 2004 Crime Writers' Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Garden of Beasts.