By Ian Fleming
Good heavens, James Bond has feelings! And, sometimes he is afraid!! While this book is really quite well written, it beats me how anyone saw the huge commercial potential for Bondy – i.e. it didn’t really do a lot for me. It was interesting, though, to see which bits of the book turned up in various movies (not necessarily the same one) and how they updated various aspects of the plot – for example, instead of smuggling gold coins that were part of a pirate’s hoard (the book) they smuggled heroin or cocaine or something (the movies). Also, there was no Q or fancy gizmos in the book, and very few smart one-liners from Bond.
If you’re interested in the plot (such as it is), Bond gets sent to the US to help investigate the flood of antique gold coins appearing on the market. He and his pal Felix Leiter fall foul of “Mr Big” who has set himself up as an underworld voodoo master up in Harlem. Mr Big’s chick, Solitaire, escapes with Bondy to Florida and after this there’s a lot of violence involving sharks and barracudas. I won’t ruin it completely by telling you everything, but rest assured Bond comes out of it OK, although slightly more injured than he appears to be in the films.
Rating: 4 out of 10
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