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Bond teams up with Cedar Leiter, the daughter of his old friend Felix, and together they uncover SPECTRE's plot to drug the personnel of the NORAD headquarters in Colorado with doctored ice cream. Once the NORAD personnel are at the mercy of SPECTRE, a disguised team of military personnel will infiltrate the headquarters and steal the computer tapes which control the Space Wolves, new laser-equipped satellites which can monopolize the arms race.

The most brilliant piece of writing that John Gardner has executed in his entire Bond series lies within this second novel.

There is a moment of devastating irony worthy of anything that lan Fleming wrote, and perhaps even does him one better. James Bond actually sleeps with the daughter of Ernst Stavro Blofeld and doesn't realise what he's doing! When 007 becomes wise to what he's done, the shock and horror is profound. Gardner claims that a lot of people just “didn't get” the ironic implications of this story - granted, only die-hard Bond fans would. After all, perhaps only the true fans understand the history involved here - that Blofeld killed Bond's wife, and here is the villain's daughter, in bed with our unknowing hero! Of course, 007 gets even in a big way at the end of the book, but the damage has been done.

This plot twist alone makes FOR SPECIAL SERVICES easily one of Gardner's best Bond books. I put it in the top three. The book is so successful because of this link with Bond's past. Whenever the author deals with events and characters from the Fleming books, I personally find the story more compelling.

Gardner states that the idea for the book stemmed from his desire to use Blofeld in some way. (Re: The THUNDERBALL court case - Gardner wasn't restricted in his use of the Blofeld character or the SPECTRE organization because lan Fleming retained the rights to the THUNDERBALL novel when the film rights were won by Kevin McClory in 1963.)

The book also marks the only appearance of Felix Leiter in a Gardner Bond (excluding the novelization of Licence To Kill). Leiter's role is brief - instead, the author introduces Felix's daughter, Cedar. This actually works thematically, since the villain in the story is also a daughter of a past character. But Gardner is not very keen to use many of Fleming's characters:

I liked his Felix Leiter character. I used him briefly, then sent on his daughter. It's strange how he becomes whole again with each new adventure [in the films]. The central characters - Bond, M, Moneypenny, Bill Tanner - remain ageless and remain the same. The subsidiary characters in Fleming's books I'm rather withdrawn from. I love Leiter in the Fleming books. But I used his offspring, and I suppose I could bring him back, but I doubt it.

Apparently, Gardner gets many letters with plot suggestions and pleas to bring back certain characters.

I get at least fifty letters a year saying why don't I do the BIG trick and use Kissy Suzuki's son [Kissy Suzuki has Bond's child out of wedlock in the novel YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE].

Originally there was another problem. My contract states that if anyone approaches me with an outline or idea for a Bond book, I'm not to read it and send it straight away to Glidrose. This is to cover us legally. We do know one person who has from the very outset, even before I started, kept sending the same idea from different addresses and different names (but stupidly using the same typewriter!), and it concerns Kissy Suzuki's child. So who knows, this guy could be waiting for the moment that we DO use Kissy Suzuki's son and then he'll want a piece of the action, claiming it was his idea. I have news for him — it's a LOT of people's idea! So I wasn't allowed to use it even before the JAMES BOND JR. thing.

One guy even sent me travel guides to Japan! It's too bad about this, because using Kissy's son would be a compelling plot aspect indeed!