Move over, 007: a stunning, sexy - and decidedly female - new player has entered the world of international espionage armed with her own pocket survival kit, her Rules for Living, her infamous overactive imagination, and a very special underwire bra.

How could a girl not be drawn to the alluring, powerful Pierre Ferramo - he of the hooded eyes, impeccable taste, unimaginable wealth, exotic international homes, and dubious French accent? Could Ferramo really be a major terrorist bent on the Western world's destruction, hiding behind a smoke screen of fine wines, yachts, and actresses slash models? Or is it all just a product of Olivia Joules's overactive imagination?

Considering the number of writers who've tried, and generally failed, to do plummy Bridget Jones one better, it only makes sense that Fielding should take a vacation from the genre she spawned and seek (sort of) greener pastures. Her new inspiration? Think Ian Fleming. Fielding's ridiculous, delicious, wildly improbable plot goes something like this: freelance journalist Olivia Joules ("as in the unit of kinetic energy"), formerly Rachel Pixley (her whole family got run over when she was 14), gets bumped from the Sunday Times's international coverage down to the style pages thanks to the titular imagination (e.g., a story about a "cloud of giant, fanged locusts pancaking down on Ethiopia"). In between ducking twittering PR reps and airheaded blondes at a Miami face cream launch party, she uncovers what looks like an al-Qaeda plot, headed by a dreamy Osama bin Laden look-alike, who is either (1) a terrorist, (2) an international playboy, (3) a serial killer or (4) all of the above. Languid, mysterious Pierre Feramo returns Olivia's interest, and thus begins an around-the-world adventure that has plucky Olivia eventually recruited by MI6. In addition to the fun spy gear (e.g., Chloé shades fitted with a nerve-agent dagger) there are kidnappings, bomb plots and scuba-diving disasters. Olivia is slim, confident and accomplished; ostensibly, she's "painstakingly erased all womanly urges to question her shape, looks, role in life," etc. But she still has her bumbling Jonesian moments, and though she may not need a man, she'll get one in the end. What's wrong with the book: two-dimensional characters, dangling plot threads, the questionable taste of al-Qaeda bombings in an escapist, comic spy novel. What's right: girl-power punch, page-turning brio and a new heroine to root for.

Olivia Joules wants to be a foreign correspondent for the SUNDAY TIMES, but her overactive imagination gets her demoted to the lifestyle pages. While in Miami covering the launch of a skin cream created by the alluring Pierre Ferramo, she witnesses the destruction of a floating apartment complex at the hands of al Qaeda. Olivia is recruited as a CIA/MI6 agent--with weapons in her underwire bra, a GPS earring, and a pocket survival kit-- to pursue the terrorists. Josephine Bailey creates distinctive voices for loony Olivia, the faux-French Ferramo, and the many other characters. Bailey's witty voice is perfect for the ludicrous moments--of which there are many--but less fitting for the occasional serious ones--for example, when Olivia is rescuing residents from the sinking apartments. Fielding's fault perhaps, but mildly jarring all the same. A.B.

Critics uniformly admire Fielding’s wit; reviews for Olivia Joules acknowledge that her punch lines uncoil with deft precision and real insight. Some praise her for branching out of the more standard chick-lit genre she helped launch with Bridget Jones to create the kicky, modern spy-girl, Olivia (or, as the Los Angeles Times calls her, “Janey Bond”). No one, however, thinks Olivia Joules’ bin Laden plot line is funny. Several writers complain that mentions of al Qaeda yank the reader out of the story back into reality, almost as if someone had inserted snuff footage into Bambi. The third-person voice distances the reader as well. Fielding can find solace, though, in knowing that most regard this as a misstep and are eager to see what her imagination concocts next.

More than anything, freelance journalist Olivia Joules wants to write serious news stories, but because of her "vivid" imagination, Olivia instead finds herself relegated by her editors to the style section. While in Miami covering the launch of a new face cream, Olivia meets mysterious, sexy Pierre Feramo, the scientist responsible for developing the cream, and once again Olivia's imagination takes over. Is Pierre really a cosmetics-developing, movie-producing international playboy or could he be an al-Qaeda agent in disguise? Olivia, who knows a thing or two about changing one's identity, can't decide if her suspicions about Pierre are correct or merely a product of her fertile imagination. What is even worse is that if Olivia turns out to be right about Pierre, it means she might be falling in love with a terrorist! The author of the phenomenally popular Bridget Jones's Diary (1998) gifts readers with another endearing, irrepressible heroine, who, armed with her lists and survival kit, discovers in this deliciously fun novel that she has a natural talent for spying. Fielding's latest has all the ingredients of a good thriller--exotic locales, a resourceful heroine, intrigue, and a touch of sexy romance--but the book is also electric with Fielding's wry wit, and the combination is simply delightful.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　John Charles

Helen Fielding, a journalist and a novelist, is the author of three previous novels, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and Cause Celeb. She also co-wrote the screenplays for the movie of Bridget Jones’s Diary and the forthcoming sequel based on Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

length: (cm)22.1 　　　 　　　　　 　 width:(cm)14.8