Diamonds are forever is an oddity. It's the first Bond novel that I think the film is better. The tone of the novel is oddly dark contrasted against the weirdly comical mob characters (perhaps especially so given the lighter-tone of the film). The plot includes the mention of gang-rape, the implication that homosexuals make better killers, and a portrayal of American Blacks as overly sensitive to race. The far less disturbing sections are boring. Most of the airplane sequences, the horse racing section, and the arrival in Las Vegas see Bond ridiculing the mobsters as childlike bullies. Bond even mentions that he's as bored when he arrives in Las Vegas as though he can see the reader leaning against the arm of a chair slowly falling asleep.

The real villains of the piece are Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint who provide the occasional bit of suspense before their final confrontation with Bond. This is the first time Bond faces his main antagonist in a climactic face-off. Now, Kidd and Wint are awesome, but they are only hired guns for the mob. The mob themselves are a hunchback and a wannabe cowboy. One lives and the other leaves the threatening stuff to Wint and Kidd.

Tiffany Case is "Diamond's" Bond girl. She is one of the few things that's better in the novel. She is tough and independent, but working to move past her exceptionally dark past. Bond's affection is fatherly at first, which only serves to make it creepier when she falls for his charm. The other thing that really stands out is the first chapter with the scorpion in the desert, great hook that sets up the reader for a let down. However, it prompted me to pick up [b:The Diamond Smugglers|372361|The Diamond Smugglers|Ian Fleming|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1230995260s/372361.jpg|362299], which is based on the research from this novel and an interview with an officer responsible for catching diamond smugglers. Anyway, skip this one and enjoy the film; it is hilarious and hits almost all the same plot points.