Goldfinger - AGAIN!

In search of a quick and light holiday read, I reached for Goldfinger, by Ian Fleming. But it wasn't long before I started to think that the story was incredibly familiar. Initially, I put it down to my having seen the film, but then suddenly realised that I'd actually read it as an ebook back in 2017! However, this time I was indulging in the audio edition, superbly narrated by Hugh Bonneville, and decided I was too far down the road to stop. I thought it would be interesting to look at the blogpost I did at the time and see if I felt the same way about it as I did then ... and I have to tell you, dear reader, not quite! In this, the seventh outing for the spy with incredible longevity, the action starts with James Bond being a little disgruntled. He is finding it increasingly difficult to live up to his 007 billing and is wondering about his future - does he really want to continue killing people? While on an enforced stopover in the USA, he is asked to help someone who is convinced that the man he has been playing cards with is cheating. Bond takes on the challenge and proves this to be the case, running off with the beautiful girl who had been an unwilling accomplice to the fraud. Back in London, Bond is called in to investigate the smuggling of gold out of the country by none other than Auric Goldfinger - the card cheat himself! This sets Bond on a collision course with one of the richest men in the world, with death and destruction coming along for the ride. The action sweeps across Europe and then to the USA, where Bond is forced to help plan, and execute, the biggest heist in history - with the gold reserves at Fort Knox being the target. Goldfinger and his henchman, Oddjob, are completely despicable, and for once, Bond's attempts at romance are, for the most part, thwarted by the inclusion of lesbian characters ... although, sadly, the author didn't seem to have the balls (no pun intended) to carry this through to the end. And this is where I felt distinctly uncomfortable with the language used regarding the female characters in this book, the attitudes expressed towards women and the ridiculous ending where Pussy Galore (oh my, what can I say about this name!) succumbs to Bond's charms. This grated on me somewhat and definitely dates this book. Despite this, there are some superb passages, where the author demonstrates his usual eye for detail with the joyful descriptions of food, cars and people. And like last time, my favourite scenes feature the tense and thrilling round of golf between Bond and Goldfinger ... in fact, I would go as far as saying that it's worth reading the book just for this! (Indeed, maybe, just read that bit!!!)

My STAR rating: THREE (one less than last time).

Length: 320 print pages.
Price I paid: £2.98.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, unabridged audio CD, ebook.