Year - 1961

Tease - He has nerves of steel, a heart of ice, and the ruthlessness of a Himmler.  He's Emilio Largo - scion of a famous and wealthy Roman family . . . international charmer with an entree to cafe society on four continents . . . number one man in SPECTRE, The Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion . . . and the Supreme Commander of Plan Omega, an operation of such fantastic magnitude that it threatens all humanity.

EMILIO LARGO, SPECTRE, OMEGA . . . these three - the man, the organization, the operation - secret agent James Bond must ferret out and crush.  He has only one lead, one person who can help him, if she will.  That person is Domino, the fiercely independent, fiery blonde who is Emilio Largo's mistress.

Villain - Emilio Largo, an Italian man whose face seems to have come from a Roman coin.  He is very athletic and strong and resembles a satyr.  Largo is an adventurer who, if he lived over a hundred years ago would have been a pirate. 

Bond-Girl - Domino Vitali, a blonde haired beauty with a 'to-hell-with-you' face that would become animal in passion.  She holds herself with self-righteous authority.  Bond compares her to a 'beautiful Arab mare who would only allow herself to be ridden by a horseman with steel thighs and velvet hands - and then only when he had broken her to bridle and saddle.'  She has one leg shorter than the other and Bond says that it 'makes her something of a child'.

Minor Characters - Felix Leiter, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Count Lippe, Petacchi, Patricia Fearing.

Plot - The first book to introduce SPECTRE.  Blofeld and Largo plan to blackmail the Western countries by hijacking two atomic bombs.

Highlights - Shrublands, SPECTRE's hijacking of the bombs, Bond playing chemin de fer against Largo and the underwater battle scene.

Opening Sentence - It was one of those days when it seemed to James Bond that all life, as someone put it, was nothing but a heap of six to four against.

Trivia - Written from a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming.  Fleming wrote the book without acknowledgement to McClory or Whittingham.  Fleming was sued by McClory and eventually settled out of court.  McClory owns the film rights to this story.  He remade the film again in 1983 titled Never Say Never Again.

Other titles were suggested such as SPECTRE, Longitude 78 West and James Bond of the Secret Service.

Originally the Russians were suppose to be the bad guys who steal the nuclear bombs.

Personal Comment About This Novel - Probably the first novel that portrays a terrorist group hijacking atomic bombs.  Considered impossible back in 1960, but very possible by today's standard.  Book is action-packed and suspenseful.  A good read and better than the films.

Jonathan Cape hardcover edition

Dr. Shatterhand's Scale from 1 - 10

"9"

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