As the seventh novel in Ian Fleming's Bond series opens, Commander James Bond, Agent 007 of Her Majesty's Secret Service, sits in a Miami airport waiting to fly home from his most recent assignment.
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When his plane is delayed for 48 hours, Bond accepts an offer from a wealthy acquaintance to investigate whether or not the man is being cheated at cards. The pay for this small service is to be 10,000 pounds.
The man is playing cards with Auric Goldfinger, the wealthy owner of a pawnshop/metallurgical empire. Keeping careful watch on Goldfinger's hotel room, Bond soon discovers the cheater's method and forces him to give all of the money back. Just to rub his nose in it, Bond also whisks Goldfinger's secretary off for a few nights of mating.
Returning to London, Bond is soon assigned to investigate Goldfinger, who, in addition to being a cheat, is also the biggest gold-smuggler in England. Goldfinger is so wealthy, in fact, that the British government fears his machinations' effect on the nation's gold-standard.
Tracking Goldfinger from London to Sandwich and across the Channel to the continent, Bond repeatedly crosses swords with the criminal, first over a tense game of golf, then in all-out combat at Goldfinger's factory in Switzerland.
Captured by Goldfinger and his bodyguard Oddjob, a Korean with a black-belt in karate and the world's deadliest piece of headgear, Bond is nonetheless able to infiltrate his nemesis' organization and discover the truth about Goldfinger's most audacious plot yet: with the help of the nation's top hoodlums, a gang of beautiful lesbian thieves, and a tactical nuclear bomb, Goldfinger intends to rob $15 billion worth of gold from Fort Knox!
The review of this Book prepared by James Craver
