Showing results by author "Ian Fleming" in All Categories

The Spangled Mob are no ordinary American gangsters. They prey on the addictions of the wealthy and treat the poor as collateral. Their ruthless desire for power and fierce brotherly loyalty make them deadly and invincible. James Bond must go deep undercover in his urgent new assignment: to destroy their millionaire masterminds, Jack and Seraffimo Spang. But the Spangs’ cruel influence is everywhere, from dusty African diamond mines to the frenzied gambling dens of Las Vegas. Can Bond find his men before his cover is blown?

“Le Chiffre” is a ruthless operative and the accountant for a soviet SMERSH cell in France, but he’s on the verge of disaster after gambling away his client’s money. Taking the last of his stash, he lures a dozen wealthy players to a high-stakes baccarat game, hoping to hustle his way whole.

What do you think of when you think about the book of Revelation? Prophecy, apocalypse, rapture? Revelation rarely shows up in the pulpits of mainline Christian churches, and many progressives feel as if Revelation is only for "the end is near" apocalyptics or Christian Nationalists and QAnon theorists. But the book of Revelation offers so much more if we're willing to crack it open in new ways. The End Is the Beginning cuts through the echo chamber of rapture-haunted apocalyptic anxiety with a clear picture of God's persistent love for all that was, and is, and will be.

Auric Goldfinger is the richest man in England―though his wealth can’t be found in banks. He’s been hoarding vast stockpiles of his namesake metal, and it has attracted the suspicion of Bond’s superiors at MI6. Sent to investigate, Bond uncovers an ingenious gold-smuggling scheme, as well as Goldfinger’s most daring caper yet: Operation Grand Slam, a heist so audacious it could bring down the world economy and put the fate of the West in the hands of SMERSH. Only 007 can stop the enigmatic millionaire and his murderous mania for gold.

Sir Hugo Drax is a multimillionaire tycoon and war hero, revered by the British public for his new Moonraker missile defense system. But there’s more to this enigmatic millionaire than he lets on. When M suspects Drax of cheating at cards, he is baffled that the patriot would risk his reputation and his rocket program on a game, so he assigns Bond to infiltrate Drax’s circle.

In his Alpine base, Blofeld is developing biological weapons that will devastate Britain. Unaware of the danger, James Bond is about to marryTeresa di Vicenzo, the daughter of a Corsican Mafioso. But then he is sent to Switzerland. Bond’s marriage and Blofeld’s schemes disintegrate in a blizzard of gunfire and high-explosives from which neither man emerges the victor.

The last book written by Ian Fleming, but by no means the least. In Octopussy, a talented but wayward British major pays a high price when his wartime past catches up with him, while in The Property of a Lady, a Fabergé egg leads Bond to a KGB spy. In The Living Daylights, Bond has a perilous rendezvous in sniper’s alley between East and West Berlin, and 007 in New York (read by Lucy Fleming) see him sent to America to warn an ex-MI6 operative about a dangerous liaison. All part of the job for 007…

James Bond is not an easily intimidated man, but it’s hard not to feel unnerved in the presence of Mr. Big. A ruthless Harlem gangster who uses superstition and fear to control his vast criminal empire, he’s also one of SMERSH’s top American operatives. Mr. Big has been smuggling British pirate treasure to New York from a remote Jamaican island and funneling the proceeds to Moscow.

A game of canasta turns out crooked and a golden girl ends up dead. It seems that Auric Goldfinger is a bad loser when it comes to cards. He’s also the world’s most ruthless and successful gold smuggler. As James Bond follows his trail, he discovers that Goldfinger’s real game is the heist of fifteen billion dollars of US government bullion. The final hand is played at Fort Knox, in a spectacular display of deception and intrigue.

"Crackpot" is what everybody calls the Pott family. So when they go to buy a new car and come back with a wreck, nobody is surprised - except for the Potts themselves. First, the car has a name, and she tells them what it is! Then they find out that she can fly...and swim. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a car on a mission to stop a criminal gang in its tracks - and she's taking the Potts with her. Jump into theworld's most loved magical car for her first adventure.

When 007 turns up at a sleepy American backwoods motel, it doesn’t take him long to realise that Vivienne Michel is in a tight spot, and that Sol Horror and Sluggsy Morant are hardened killers bent on destruction. Escaping from a past she doesn’t want to relive, Viv turns to James Bond to save her.

Crackpot is what everybody calls the Pott family. So when they go to buy a new car and come back with a wreck, nobody is surprised. Except for the Potts themselves. First, the car has a name. And she tells them what it is. Then they find that she can fly... and swim... Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a car on a mission to stop a criminal gang in its tracks and she is taking the Potts with her! Jump into the world s most loved magical car, for her first adventure ever!

Ernst Stavro Blofeld, leader of the terrorist organisation SPECTRE, has hijacked an American plane loaded with atomic weapons. Unless his demands are met he will destroy one of the world’s major cities. With only one week to locate the missing bombs, Bond goes to the Bahamas where he encounters Blofeld’s right-hand man, Emilio Largo and his mistress Domino. With time running out, Bond learns that sharks are not the only killers in the Caribbean Sea.

Ian Fleming’s world travels and interests, as well as his journalism and wartime experiences, lent authority to everything he wrote. In 1959, the Sunday Times commissioned Fleming to write a series of dispatches from the world’s most beguiling locales. The result was Thrilling Cities, a masterpiece of well-observed travelogue that stands ably alongside the author’s Bond canon. From Hong Kong to Honolulu, New York to Naples, he left the bright main streets for the back alleys, abandoning tourist sites in favor of underground haunts, and mingling with celebrities, gangsters and geishas.

M thinks he has an easy case for 007. Exactly what’s needed after his latest near-fatal encounter with SMERSH. However, arriving in Jamaica to look for a missing agent and his secretary, Bond learns that the reclusive Dr Julius No could be connected with their disappearance. When Bond and the exotic Honeychile Rider are imprisoned on Dr No’s private island, they realise that his plans could threaten international security.

Upon M's insistence, James Bond takes a two-week respite in a secluded natural health spa. But amid the bland teas and tasteless yogurts Bond stumbles onto the trail of a lethal man with ties to a new secret organization called SPECTRE. When SPECTRE hijacks two A-bombs, a frantic global search for the weapons ensues, and M's hunch that the plane containing the bombs will make a clean drop into the ocean sends Bond to the Bahamas to investigate.

In 1957, as the Cold War raged, Ian Fleming took a respite from writing James Bond to craft a work of nonfiction every bit as tense as a Bond adventure. Aided by an ex-MI5 agent and International Diamond Security Organization operative going by the alias “John Blaize,” Fleming chronicled the IDSO’s infiltration of the “million-carat network”―the world’s most notorious diamond smuggling ring.

On 16 August 1952, Ian Fleming wrote to his wife, Ann, 'My love, This is only a tiny letter to try out my new typewriter and to see if it will write golden words since it is made of gold'. And he did write golden words: 14 best-selling James Bond books, and an equally energetic flow of letters to his wife, publisher, editors, fans, friends and critics, charting 007's progress....

Diamonds are being smuggled on a formidable scale from Africa to America via Britain. 007’s assignment is to break the smuggling ring. It’s a dangerous mission that takes him to the racecourse and mud-baths of Saratoga Springs, the gaming tables of Las Vegas, the ghost town of Spectreville and beyond. The Spangled Mob threatens to be too much even for Bond, but help is at hand in the shape of co-conspirator Tiffany Case.

James Bond is targeted for elimination by SMERSH, and the malevolent Colonel Rosa Klebb has set a trap in Istanbul. The bait is the Spektor decoding machine, which is to be delivered by the irresistible Tatiana Romanova. The assassin is Red Grant, a psychopath who has defected from the West. Bond and Tatiana become pawns in a game of cross and double-cross that reaches its deadly finale on the Orient Express.