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Book Review By James Craver
Doctor No by Ian Fleming

As Ian Fleming's sixth Bond novel begins, Commander Strangways, the local station chief of Her Majesty's Secret Service in the Caribbean, and his secretary are slain by a group of efficient assassins. Their files are burnt and their bodies are made to disappear.

Sent out to investigate the case is Commander James Bond, codename 007. Still recuperating from his recent encounter with a Russian assassin's poisoned blade, Bond is being sent on what everyone else assumes to be just a case of lovers abandoning their post.

Arriving in Kingston, Jamaica, Bond soon concludes that Strangways and his assistant are dead. Avoiding attempts on his own life by toxic insect, speeding automobile, and poisoned fruit, Bond traces the attempts to a mysterious island known as Crab Key.

Traveling there with his old friend and native guide Quarrel, Bond meets and befriends a voluptuous shell-diver named Honeychile Rider, who is soon captured with Bond by the minions of the island's owner, the mysterious Doctor No.


Plot & Themes
Tone of story - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
Time/era of story:
Spying/Terrorism Thriller Yes
Cloak & Dagger Plotlets:
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
descript. of violence and chases - 30 %
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20 %
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20 %
Who's the terrorist enemy here?
Search for technology?
Is Romance a MAJOR (25%+) part of story? Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Race

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 60's-90's
Profession/status:
Eccentric: Yes
Motive of antagonist - power
The antagonists are: - Chinese
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters

Setting
The Americas (not US): Yes
The Americas: - The Caribbean
Water? Yes
Water: - sail boat
Island? Yes
Island: - naive Brooke Shields-ish virgin - food/shelter preoccupation - stranded - Caribbean Island
Misc setting - fancy mansion

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - very gorey references to deaths/dead bodies and torture
Explicit sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references - descript of kissing - touching of anatomy - descript. of breasts
Unusual forms of death - dropped from large heights - crushed - flamed - perforation--bullets - perforation--swords/knives
Unusual form of death? Yes
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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