This is a fascinating book. It was made into the second James Bond movie, and as such the movie is a very faithful recreation of this novel.
It is easily the best book in the series so far. The baddies are really bad, and the tale is set up so meticulously that Bond himself does not appear until well after page 100.
Something I didn't know until I read Charlie Higson's introduction was that this was originally intended to be the last Bond book - sales had been dipping and Flemming decided to end the series on a bang. And so he did - the ending was quite unexpected, and as such I am going to read the next book immediately (so far I have been rationing them out slowly!)
So a good read, looking forward to the next book which is Doctor No.

30.4.23 Reread and broadly agree with comments above. I had forgotten the cliffhanger ending, and I’m not sure it’s the best so far as stated above, but it is highly enjoyable.