DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

Written by Ian Fleming

Copyright © 1956 by Glidrose Productions Ltd.

Paperback
Publisher: Berkley (May, 1982)
Language: English

ISBN-0-425-05364-4



In Diamonds are Forever, part of the James Bond series by Ian Fleming, Britain' secret service agent Bond is sent to America to search for diamond smugglers in order to defend the national security and economic well-being of the United Kingdom. Bond once again teams up with his American agent friend and counterpart Felix Leiter and meets the hot, mysterious Miss Tiffany Case as he uses her to go up against the mob.

As Bond tries to infiltrate the mob, it is just a little too unbelievable to me that a stranger from England is able to get into the mob that easily. Granted there was some initial suspicion from the mob, but there was not enough suspicion for me to totally believe that he could get accepted with them even at a low level. It would seem criminals would be very cliquish and paranoid against strangers. There is a little action involved in the book, but not as action-packed as compared to today's media like the James Bond movies. Considering the title Diamonds are Forever, diamonds are hardly mentioned in the book - even if diamonds was the reason Bond was on the case. When you consider the high value of diamonds as a highly traded precious stone commodity, this is a most noticeable lack of use in the book - as diamonds have been the driving violent force behind using slave and child labor, especially in Africa, to fund the blood diamonds by dictators and revolutionary entities. I do not recall any mention of these issues being touched on in the book. It would have been interesting to see if the cliquish criminals had attatched some of the supposed supernatural lore of diamonds to their diamonds when they were dealing with them.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Wild Fire

Vision
Hachette Book Group USA

Written by Nelson DeMille

Copyright © 2006 by Nelson DeMille



In Wild Fire, part of the John Corey series, Detective John Corey investigates the death of a fellow Anti-Terrorist Task Force agent who was investigating the Custer Hill Club in the middle of the woods - and finds out a horrible Mid-Eastern American plot concerning nuclear weapons just after 9/11.

This is a typical smart ass John Corey thriller - where the running gag in this book is about bears, especially since Cory is a city person. The stakes get higher and higher as John and his FBI agent wife Kate discover more and more about the sinister plot with the nuclear weapons - and America's automatic response to a domestic nuclear strike called "Wild Fire." Wild Fire is based on a rumored actual Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) retaliation response of the U.S. military's nuclear arsenal concerning a hostile first strike use of weapons of mass destruction against America, the result of which would basically mean the annihilation of both sides if it happens. The plot all originates from a mountain hunting lodge club - a club whose members include high-level members of the U.S. government.

When they first describe the nuclear threat to John and Kate, I kept thinking they would explain something like the wargame scene in the movie Wargames, where all the nuclear missiles from the various nuclear pacts launched at each other. That was a scary scene, just thinking about the implications. Since one of the targets in Wild Fire was Los Angeles, I can imagine how scary it would be like if the Wild Fire scenario was intentionally initiated in my hometown.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.