And so we reach number four in the Bond series, and this one lacks the punch of it's predecessors.
For the uninitiated, Bond is asked to infiltrate an American gang who are smuggling diamonds out of a mine in Africa and selling them through their very legit high-end retailers.
So far so good.
Unfortunately, Flemming struggles to hold the reader's attention, and when he decides to bring in horse racing (and the fixing thereof), the story starts to feel a little stretched and thin.
There is also a problem with some of the lead characters being very poorly drawn, leaving you with only a cursory notion of who they really are. And his use of good fortune and coincidence to drive the story along is borderline unforgivable.
But, despite all that is wrong with this book, it's still fun.
He is developing Bond's character more and more, allowing our hero to fall in love and show that he can be affected by all the death and killing that we've come to associate him with. In fact, one could almost go as far as to say Bond shows just how human he can be in Diamonds.
Not least with his relationship with 'M'.
Flemming also shows how he was able to rock the establishment back when his books were first published. While the actual 'sex' scene is remarkably chastened by today's standards, the scene where Bond first goes to Tiffany Case's room is rich with erotic tension.
If you'll pardon the expresion, when Flemming nails it he nails it.
There are, of course, areas of the writing that are now showing its age. The fact a Jewish girl opens the door at the Diamond house seems an unnecessary interjection in this day and age, yet I suspect it barely raised an eyebrow back in 1956.
Similarly, there are phrases and expressions used by Bond that went out of fashion long before the silver screen came a-calling.
One can only hope From Russia With Love is more of a retur to form.
Right, lets go and see what kind of mess the film was...