Dr No

'Fleming, by reason of his plausability, sense of pace, brilliant descriptive powers and superb imagination, provides sheer entertainment.' Spectator

Date published: 1958

Original Summary of the Plot

M hasn't forgiven James Bond for the negligence on his last assignment that nearly cost Bond his life. Brusquely, almost contemptuously, he tosses Bond a time-wasting, shabby little case in the Caribbean. It will really be a holiday on an island in the sun - convalescence.

Angrily Bond accepts his orders. He flies off to Jamaica. The sun shines, the palm trees wave, the calypsos throb.

But on the horizon a cloud forms. It is no bigger than a man's hand - an articulated steel hand - the hand of Dr. No!

This, the sixth of Ian Fleming's Secret Service thrillers, will, as did the others, grip the reader with a taut, suave, sensual stranglehold.
Plot Summary from the original jacket copy of the Jonathan Cape edition

Current Summary of the Plot

Dr. No, a sinister recluse with mechanical pincers for hands and a sadistic fascination with pain, holds James Bond firmly in his steely grasp. Bond and Honey Rider, his beautiful and vulnerable girl Friday, have been captured trespassing on Dr No's secluded Caribbean island. Intent on protecting his clandestine operations from the British Secret Service, Dr No sees an opportunity to dispose of an enemy and further his diabolical research. Soon, Bond and Rider are fighting for their lives in a murderous game of Dr. No's choosing.
Plot Summary adapted from the current Penguin edition
 

The Girl: Honeychile Rider

The Villain: Dr No

Location: Great Inagua, Bahamas

Date made into a film: 1962

James Bond played by Sean Connery

'Masterful, beautifully written' Raymond Chandler, The Sunday Times

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