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." 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", although Christopher Hitchens complained that "there is almost no sex until the very last pages."