From Russia with Love

Bond does not himself feature until quite late in this novel — the opening chapters, one of Fleming's most amazing fantasies, creates the nightmare world of SMERSH — the Russian counter-spy organisation, its sickeningly foul section head Rosa Klebb and her top assassin Grant. When the action shifts to Istanbul and Klebb's plot to destroy the unsuspecting Bond one of the most brilliant chase sequences in fiction (unrivalled even by Buchan or Greene) unfolds. One of the defining books of the Cold War (and one of President Kennedy's favourite books) From Russia with Love is perhaps even more enjoyable to read now than when it first became a huge international bestseller.