First published in Playboy, January 1999, Richard Benson’s short story this follows The Facts of Death and precedes High Time to Kill.

Midsummer Night’s Doom is a special story commissioned to help celebrate Playboy’s 45th anniversary. By Benson’s own admission, the short story is a joke piece and not to be taken seriously.

In the story, Bond is assigned to attend a party at Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills, California where Ministry of Defence secrets are expected to be sold to a representative of the Russian Mafia.

While there, Bond meets Hefner who is aware of his mission and who actually provides Bond with several gadgets a la Q. Bond also has time to enjoy a quick romance with real-life Playmate Lisa Dergan, flirt with other Playmates including Victoria Zdrok, and rub elbows with the likes of actor Robert Culp and singer Mel Torme.

Dergan has the distinction of being, to date, the only real person ever to be awarded the status of Bond Girl. (Several other Playmates are referenced by name in this story, but Dergan is clearly Bond’s girl of choice on this adventure.)