The novel was broadly well received by critics and went into the best-seller lists by the end of the first week of sales, selling 44,093 copies in four days to become the fastest-selling fiction book after the Harry Potter titles.

Bond is assisted in his investigation by Scarlett Papava (whose twin sister Poppy is under Gorner's emotional spell), Darius Alizadeh (the local head of station), JD Silver (an in-situ agent), and Felix Leiter.

Silver shows himself to be a double agent by failing to call in an airstrike against the Ekranoplan and by attempting to kill Leiter and Darius.

In the shoot-out Darius successfully calls in the airstrike at the cost of his own life and Leiter survives only thanks to the timely arrival of Hamid, his taxi driver.

"[1] On another occasion he returned to the theme, describing the character as "a very vulnerable man, with his nice suit and soft shoes and ludicrously underpowered gun.

"[2] With the novel following the fictional timeframe of The Man with the Golden Gun, Bond is still in a state of decline following the death of his wife,[3] and has been forced to take a sabbatical on medical grounds.

[5] For the main female character in the book, Faulks created Scarlett Papava, a fellow MI6 agent who is promoted to the 00 section at the end of the novel.

Academic Tony Garland draws a similarity between Papava and the John Gardner character Fredericka von Grüsse, as they both create "a tension between mission and desire.

"[6] Faulks himself considered that: "My female lead—the 'Bond girl'—has a little more depth than Fleming's women, but not at the expense of glamour",[1] although Christopher Hitchens complained that "there is almost no sex until the very last pages.

[8] Writer Ian Thomson sees Gorner as being "a villain to rival the half-Chinese Dr Julius No",[9] describing him as "a megalomaniac in the cruel lineage of Tamburlaine".

[10] Gorner was Lithuanian by birth, which was a nod by Faulks to Auric Goldfinger's Baltic background,[9] whilst his cheating in a game of tennis against Bond was "a deliberate twin to golf with Auric Goldfinger; there is even a sinister Asian manservant—Chagrin, nodding across literary time to Oddjob—who helps his boss to cheat.

"[3] Academic Marc DiPaolo also noted a similarity between Gorner's plans to take over the media and destroy British culture from within and the actions of Rupert Murdoch.

"[12] A large part of Devil May Care is set in Persia (now Iran); it was an area Fleming had not previously dealt with in his Bond novels, describing it as "full of thieves and crooks".

[17] The jacket artwork featured the model Tuuli Shipster, who said: "I was thrilled that Penguin chose me to be their Bond girl.

[20] In the UK, Devil May Care went to the top of the best-seller lists by the end of the first week's sales, having sold 44,093 copies in four days; this made it the fastest-selling fiction book after the Harry Potter titles.

[8] Sam Leith, reviewing the novel for The Daily Telegraph thought that Faulks managed to avoid pastiche in his writing of the book, but had some fun, with "crass stuff ... being played, of course, for laughs".

[25] Leith noted that aside from the more camp elements to the book—of which he approved—"when [Faulks] throttles down and lets the Bond schtick do its own work he soon hits a comfortable cruising speed.

"[27] He noted that Faulks "evokes scenes with deft skill: recreates a time and a world with great brio, and manages it with the block script of Fleming's journalistic nature rather than his own more cursive style.

"[27] Ferguson remained unsatisfied by the book, although he absolves the author of the blame, saying "the problem isn't Faulks, it's Bond.

[27] The critic for the London Evening Standard observed that "for once, the claim on the cover, Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming is more than just publishers effrontery, it's a genuine strategy".

[28] The critic went on to note that Faulks had "not attempted to modernise Bond one whit" and that he had "delivered in convincing fashion too, in plain prose.

[10] The New York Times critic, Charles McGrath, felt that Faulks "improbably injects new life into the formula",[30] which meant that Devil May Care was "a stronger novel than any that Fleming wrote".

[30] Fritz Lanham, writing for the Houston Chronicle declared that "so satisfying was Sebastian Faulks' new James Bond novel that I felt obliged to celebrate by making myself a vodka martini, very dry, shaken, not stirred.