I din't love this book, which was not too surprising. I'm not a huge spy/ thriller fan, but when I saw these original prints at a thrift store, obviously I was going to buy them. And If I own them, I should read them, and they were next on my series list.

While it was a fast read, it was not the most enjoyable read for me.

It's a bit of a damp squib is Diamonds Are Forever. Even Bond himself constantly questions why he's on this mission. It's more a detective story than a Bond story, until the last couple of chapters.

Bond's low opinion of his opponents doesn't help. He's not up against a madman or SMERSH, he's up against a Mafia led diamond smuggling racket and despite every American he meets telling him not to under-estimate them his low opinion of them and their capabilities don't help build tension. Eventually, Bond gets beaten up in a low-grade vulgar kind of way, which you almost think Fleming feels he deserves.

My friend, Aya, thinks Fleming is bored of Bond at this point and that's almost how it feels. It's a slow walk through a decent plot, but it isn't very James Bond.

There's the usual smattering of racism, sexism and homophobia plus the 'girl', Tiffany Case, is a damaged survivor of sexual abuse. I'm actually going to say that I think Bond is surprisingly sensitive about how he handles this.

It says a lot about the book though that perhaps the most moving part of it involves one of the characters quoting Alice in Wonderland and thus features virtually none of his own writing.

So, I'm afraid this has to be the least impressive Bond book so far.

This is good, but not the best of Bond. I am a huge fan of Fleming’s villains. The movies super size them for the screen and over-do it, it the originals are fun. Unfortunately, here is no central villain in this novel. Bond faces off against a series of slightly bumbling mobsters with the intermittent help of his former counterpart at the CIA who has bounced back nicely from a terrible shark inflicted mauling battling Mr. Big. He has left government and is now enjoying thwarting organized crime from the riveted sector as a Pinkerton. Fleming's descriptions of America are also terribly unflattering and mildly unfair. I am sure there were plenty of seedy, tacky places in 1950s Europe, but Bond never visits those.

The fourth novel in the original James Bond series by Ian Fleming was first published in 1956. This time around, Bond is charged with stopping a diamond smuggling ring whose pipeline runs from Sierra Leone to Las Vegas. Reportedly, much of the background research that Fleming did for this book was used in his non-fiction book, [b:The Diamond Smugglers|372361|The Diamond Smugglers|Ian Fleming|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1230995260s/372361.jpg|362299], published the next year in 1957.

Most of the action of the novel takes place in Saratoga Springs, NY, the Tiara Hotel in Las Vegas, and aboard the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner. Felix Leiter, former CIA agent badly wounded in a shark attack in book 2, [b:Live and Let Die|3763|Live and Let Die (James Bond, #2)|Ian Fleming|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327953982s/3763.jpg|171188], now works for Pinkerton Detective agency and makes several significant appearances in this novel. I’m glad. I like Felix a lot and worried about his condition after Live and Let Die. I suppose losing a leg and now having a hook for a hand isn’t too bad after hanging around with Bond.

The Bond girl in this novel is Tiffany Case, part of the diamond smuggler group and a definite throwback to women who desperately need men to help them make it through life. More pages are devoted to the Bond/Tiffany romance than I had expected. I suppose this shows some growth and maturity on the part of the Bond character, especially since it really seems to be love and not just another girl.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this Bond entry but it does suffer from lack of a focused bad guy. The smuggling operation is run by a ruthless American gang called the “Spangled Mob”, run by the brothers Jack and Serraffimo Spang. But they are more token bad guy leaders than evil nemeses, and neither one gets much screen time. The more villainous baddies are the two homosexual thugs, Wint and Kidd.

My Bond indulgence will continue. But for now, I am off to watch the movie version of this novel, probably best known as the last Bond movie starring Sean Connery. (Not counting “Never Say Never Again”)

I found the last Bond book to be slower and less captivating. I was pleased that this one picked up the pace again, crafting an interesting and twisting narrative that kept my attention. The main lady was fairly bland in this one and the antagonists were less fleshed out but I found the story itself more even and the action more engaging.

Felix remains one of my favorites and I was glad he appeared in this one as well. Fleming has a gift for making you care about random side characters who you know you'll probably never hear of again.

One of the less racist and sexist Bond books. Although that's partially because it's comprised predominantly by white dudes, it's a genuine improvement over the last couple.

Overall, I must admit that I've been pleased that Bond is actually much less of a cocky playboy in the books than the celluloid iteration everyone knows. Fleming gives him more depth, internal conflict, and real fear than you usually see on screen. I look forward to reading the next.