Book No. 4: Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds Are Forever was first published in 1956.
Diamond smuggling was something of a hobby to Ian Fleming. Not that he participated in it, he just enjoyed studying it. He even wrote a non-fiction book on the subject a year later in 1957 called The Diamond Smugglers.

M gives Bond the assignment of infiltrating a smuggling ring, that's been going on for some time now, from Africa to the US. He instructs Bond to travel down the pipeline to see who's behind it all. As Peter Franks, Diamond Smuggler, he begins his mission.
On the trail, he meets Tiffany Case, a member of the diamond smuggling pipeline. Through her help, he finds out that the operation is being controlled by The Spangled Mob, of the United States. But Bond must get past The Spangled Mob's homosexual hitmen Mr Wint & My Kidd to get to the top.
The pipeline begins in Africa where a dentist would pay miners to smuggle diamonds in their mouth which the dentist would extract during a routine appointment. From there the dentist would take the diamonds and rendevous with Rufus B. Saye who would transport the diamonds to London via helicopter. In London, Tiffany Case would get an assignment from a contact only known as ABC, she would then meet with "the hire" (in this case, Bond) and explain to that person how to smuggle the diamonds to New York City. It end in Las Vegas, near The Spangled Mob's HQ. Headquarters are located in the thought to be ghost town of Spectreville. Felix Leiter comes back, although not working for the CIA. After being almost eaten by sharks in Live and Let Die, he now works for Pinkertons, a private investigator company based out of the United States.

Although this book is 100% better than the movie adaptation, its still nothing special. It took awhile for it to excite me. But still, its a pretty good read. I give it a 6/10.