Dr. No, by Ian Fleming

Now I’ve got some more news for you. There’s a job come up. In Jamaica. Personnel problem. Or that’s what it looks like. Routine investigation and report. The sunshine’ll do you good and you can practise your new guns on the turtles or whatever they have down there. You can do with a bit of holiday. Like to take it on?’

Bond thought: He’s got it in for me over the last job. Feels I let him down. Won’t trust me with anything tough. Wants to see. Oh well! He said: ‘Sounds rather like the soft life, sir. I’ve had almost too much of that lately. But if it’s got to be done … If you say so, sir …’

‘Yes,’ said M. ‘I say so.’

I was expecting this from the beginning. I had been attracted to the first 007 novels by the adventures I had enjoyed in the films -whether Connery, Brosnan or Craig's. But I was taken aback when I met the James Bond in Casino Royale. Don't misunderstand me, I did enjoy the first novels. It's just that they didn't portrait the hero, the mad villain, the hi tech secret base or the gadgets I had imagined I'd read about.

But in Dr No you've got all the exciting elements one would expect from the films. Once you get in touch with the myth (in the films) and then find it shattered (in the first novels) now everything seems to fall into place.

There is something else I's like to say -I recommend starting the series from the beginning or, if you just don't want to, pick From Russia with Love, which comes right before this one. It does deserve a post of its own, and I may write one one day.

Now, back to Dr No. There is an interesting game in connection with the character in the title. The reader needs to imagine and then rebuild their picture of the villain, since it is only little by little that we get to know him. A bit blurred at the end, by the way. One thing that kept me half smiling through all the hardships was the contrast between the initial setting and the way the plot develops. I think there is some interest in two of the secondary characters -Honeychile Rider and M. A bit of more detail on the two wouldn't have hurt.

It's a good summer read.

"JamesBondBeach3" by Banjoman1 - Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.