Read by Adjoa Andoh
LEGENDARY AGENT JAMES BOND CONFRONTS AN ENEMY UNLIKE ANY HEтАЩS FACED BEFORE
James Bond is not an easily intimidated man, but itтАЩs hard not to feel unnerved in the presence of Mr. Big. A ruthless Harlem gangster who uses superstition and fear to control his vast criminal empire, heтАЩs also one of SMERSHтАЩs top American operatives.
Mr. Big has been smuggling British pirate treasure to New York from a remote Jamaican island and funneling the proceeds to Moscow. With help from Solitaire, Mr. BigтАЩs beautiful and enigmatic Creole fortune teller, and his old friend Felix Leiter of the CIA, 007 must locate the crime lordтАЩs hideout, sabotage his operation, and reclaim the pirate hoard for England.
Ian Lancaster Fleming was born in London in 1908. His first job was at Reuters news agency, after which he worked briefly as a stockbroker before working in Naval Intelligence during World War Two. His first novel, Casino Royale, was published in 1953 and was an instant success. Fleming went on to write thirteen other Bond books as well as two works of nonfiction and the childrenтАЩs classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Bond books have earned praise from figures such as Raymond Chandler, who called Fleming тАЬthe most forceful and driving writer of thrillers in EnglandтАЭ and President Kennedy, who named From Russia with Love as one of his favorite books. The books inspired a hugely successful series of film adaptations that began in 1962 with the release of Dr. No. He was married to Ann O'Neill, with whom he had a son, Caspar. He died in 1964.