007 Moonraker

A trip to America in Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds Are Forever was Ian Fleming’s follow up to Moonraker, which had been set entirely in the UK. Since several readers wrote to Fleming to complain that they missed the exotic locations they had become used to in the James Bond novels Fleming returned once more to North America, which in the days before transatlantic jets, was still a glamorous destination to many Britons.

In the second James Bond book, Live And Let Die, James Bond had already visited New York and shown around the jazz spots of Harlem by Felix Leiter. This time he takes him to Sardis for martinis and dinner before they bother take a road trip to Saratoga in Leiter’s “Studilac”, a Cadillac-Studebaker cross.

In Saratoga we’re given taste of the horse racing world in the United States and going over some of the tricks used to fix races. We’re also introduced to bourbon and branch water, which 007 sticks to resolutely while in Saratoga. He also has the time to visit sulphur baths where he sees mob justice dished out to a jockey who had doublecrossed them.

As well as learning about racing, James Bond is then sent to Las Vegas where he hits the gaming tables. Of course it is fixed so he receives a payoff, but the bright lights of the hotels and casinos paint a real picture of Las Vegas as it was in the 1950s.

Bond’s foe in this adventure is an American gang called the Spangled Mob and when he is found out he is taken to a cowboy town owned by one of the bosses, complete with saloon bar and Wild West style railroad, Casey Jones style.

Bond is in real trouble, but manages to escape and he and Tiffany make the crossing to England on the Queen Elizabeth. However, two of the Spangled Mob heavies are also on the boat and James Bond has rather less than a comfortable voyage back home.

Diamonds Are Forever is one of the weaker James Bond books, but still has some worthwhile locations that are fun to read about and take the reader back in time.

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