For his fourth outing, our favorite Double O agent turns his Berreta's aim on America. The mission is simple enough: infiltrate Seraffino Spang's mob network to uncover the boss's diamond-smuggling contact who's operating out of Sierra Leone. Then kill the contact.
From the rigged horserace tracks of Boca Raton Florida, to Vegas' boom-or-bust roulette tables, climaxing in a deadly Atlantic Ocean voyage, Bond's only allies through it all are his cerebral intuition, cloak-and-dagger abilities, and Tiffany Case: a young American caught up too closely to the diamonds.
From the rigged horserace tracks of Boca Raton Florida, to Vegas' boom-or-bust roulette tables, climaxing in a deadly Atlantic Ocean voyage, Bond's only allies through it all are his cerebral intuition, cloak-and-dagger abilities, and Tiffany Case: a young American caught up too closely to the diamonds.
WHY I LOVE IT
Fleming's writing is nearly constant acceleration. He launches Bond and the plot developments into the underworlds of criminals, psychopaths, terrorists, and femme fatales. Diamonds is an edge-of-the-page thriller with a strong psychological portrait; Fleming's Bond is much deeper than the films' one-liners, sexual innuendos, and car chases make the character out to be. Think more Daniel Craig's portrayal of cerebral observation, emotional vulnerability, and moral questioning. [JG]
Ian Fleming with Sean Connery on the set of Dr. No (1962)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
| Ian Fleming (1908 - 1964) served as Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence during World War II, a key player in English and Allied espionage efforts. His travels, interests, and wartime experiences birthed his first novel, Casino Royale, which he penned from "Goldeneye," his home in Jamaica in '52. The first printing sold out in the first month. Fleming went on to write twelve James Bond novels in twelve years, with sales skyrocketing four years later, after President Kennedy named Fleming's fifth, From Russia With Love, one of his favorite books. Since then, sixty-five years later, over one hundred million copies of Bond's adventures have been sold. |
FAVORITE QUOTES
5. "...Now [Bond] could understand the passion that diamonds had inspired throughout the centuries, the almost sexual love they aroused among those who handled them and cut them and traded in them. It was domination by a beauty so pure that it held a kind of truth, a divine authority before which all other material things turned...to clay. In those few minutes Bond understood the myth of diamonds, and he knew that he would never forget what he had suddenly seen inside the heart of the stone...'Yes,' he said. 'I see.' "
4. "She was sitting, half-naked, astride a chair in front of the dressing table, gazing across the back of the chair into the triple mirror. Her bare arms were folded along the tall back of the chair and her chin was resting on her arms. Her spine was arched, and there was arrogance in the set of her brassiere across the naked back, the tight black lace pants and the splay of the legs whipped at Bond's senses."
3. "On an impulse, he put his right hand under his coat and drew the .25 Beretta automatic with the skeleton grip out of the chambois leather holster that hung just below his left armpit. It was the new gun M. had given him "as a memento" after his last assignment, with a note in M.'s green ink that had said, 'You may need this.' "
2. "The great six-lane highway stretched on through a forest of multi-colored signs and frontage until it lost itself downtown in a dancing lake of heat waves. The day was as hot and sultry as a fire opal. The swollen sunburned straight down the middle of the frying concrete and there was no shade anywhere except under the few scattered palms in the forecourts of the motels. A glittering gunfire of light-splinters shot at Bond's eyes from the windscreens of oncoming cars and from their blaze of chrome styling and he felt his wet shirt clinging to his skin."
1. "She unbuttoned her shirt and dug into the waistband of her slacks. Bond took the Beretta, feeling the warmth of her on the metal. He flicked out the magazine. Three rounds left. And one in the breach."
4. "She was sitting, half-naked, astride a chair in front of the dressing table, gazing across the back of the chair into the triple mirror. Her bare arms were folded along the tall back of the chair and her chin was resting on her arms. Her spine was arched, and there was arrogance in the set of her brassiere across the naked back, the tight black lace pants and the splay of the legs whipped at Bond's senses."
3. "On an impulse, he put his right hand under his coat and drew the .25 Beretta automatic with the skeleton grip out of the chambois leather holster that hung just below his left armpit. It was the new gun M. had given him "as a memento" after his last assignment, with a note in M.'s green ink that had said, 'You may need this.' "
2. "The great six-lane highway stretched on through a forest of multi-colored signs and frontage until it lost itself downtown in a dancing lake of heat waves. The day was as hot and sultry as a fire opal. The swollen sunburned straight down the middle of the frying concrete and there was no shade anywhere except under the few scattered palms in the forecourts of the motels. A glittering gunfire of light-splinters shot at Bond's eyes from the windscreens of oncoming cars and from their blaze of chrome styling and he felt his wet shirt clinging to his skin."
1. "She unbuttoned her shirt and dug into the waistband of her slacks. Bond took the Beretta, feeling the warmth of her on the metal. He flicked out the magazine. Three rounds left. And one in the breach."
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