On 13 Sep 96, 01:45am, James Mcneill wrote to David Chessler
on the subject of "LIVING FOREVER":
 >    I'm a longtime Fleming fan, but I don't recall any problems with Bond's
 >    gun. I've often wondered what a 'skeleton grip' is, though. I much
 >    preferred the Walther of the later stories to the Beretta of the 
 >    earlier ones, but if you're close and hit the right spot, a .25 has 
 >    been known to get the job done.
The earliest was a .25 with the grips removed and replaced with
friction tape. This is an unsuitable weapon for defence. Also,
the chamois leather holster was unsuitable for defence. When
told, Fleming misconstrued the advice, and had Bond use, if I
recall, a Walther PPK in a Berns-Martin Holster. Berns-Martin
Holsters are only for revolvers. Later, I think Bond did use a
revolver in some books.
 >    It's easy to fall into the pit if the writer isn't familiar with the
 >    subject and the reader is. If one is writing, it pays to do a little
 >    research. To get caught on a technicality is one thing, but to put
 >    cylinders on a Browning is like having your Pony car wearing shoes
 >    instead of tires.        (8-}
No, it's a matter of forgetting whether you had a pony car or a
pony. For someone who doesn't know or care much about firearms,
it's an easy mistake to make, whether the character had a
revolver or an automatic, 100 pages back. (Usually the plot
doesn't hinge on the detail.) Thus, I think Christie did make the
mistake in the first of the Tommy and Tuppence novels (N or M?),
back at the beginning of her career, and later had Adriane Oliver
complain of people who notice things like that.
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