Not the most action-packed installment I've read so far, but still a pretty good story. As Bond mopes in London following the loss of his last girl to another man(Tiffany Case in Diamonds Are Forever), he is lured to Istanbul. SMERSH has hatched a plot to discredit and kill England's premier spy, and uses the beautiful Tatiana Romanova as bait. Almost nothing happens in the first half of the book, other than Fleming's trademark writing style packed with detail, deep character development and rich descriptions of various locales. Fleming takes great pains to make the entire story plausible, almost to a fault. The action happens on the Orient Express from Istanbul to Paris, with a bit of cliffhanger ending that you never get in the film versions.

After decades of watching the films I find a lot of enjoyment in reading the original stories, despite the sexism and racism that often emerge in Fleming's writing. I find the book version of Bond much more human and believable.