Vivienne Michel

Quite a dissapointing read if you were looking for a spy thriller. Bond's role is minimal and workmanlike. If you approach the book as a 'romance' novel or a 'crime story' then it is all right, if dated.

A rather refreshing take on the James Bond timeline.

I'm glad that I decided to go back and read this one, which I had previously skipped. Although Bond has an important role, this entry in the Bond series (#10) is quite different in style and content from the others. A first-person narrative of a girl just reaching adulthood in the early 1960s into whose life gangsters & violence (and eventually James Bond) suddenly erupt.

Fleming's macho fantasy writing really stumbles here where a female character is the narrator, and through her Fleming channels his one-dimensional views of women.