"Fleming's fifth entry in the Bond series opens in a gray building in communist Moscow, where the Russian assassination group known as SMERSH has hatched a plot to kill an agent of the British Secret Service, humiliate him and his organization across the world, and eliminate the top cipher decryption specialists in the West.
The plotters are Colonels Kronsteen and Klebb, the master chess-player and the sadistic female torturer who are the brains behind SMERSH's considerable brawn.
The killer is Donovan "Red" Grant, the Irish former serial killer
who is now the Chief Executioner of SMERSH.
The bait is the beautiful Corporal Tatiana Romanova and her Lektor encryption machine, a device whose recovery could mean the difference between defeat and victory for the West.
The victim is to be Commander James Bond, codenamed 007, the biggest single thorn in the side of the Russian intelligence community.
Traveling to Istanbul, Turkey, Bond teams with local station chief Darko Kerim to recover the girl and the machine and spirit them both back to England.
Dodging hired Bulgarian goons armed with pistols, knives, and limpet mines, Bond and Kerim manage to book passage out of Turkey for themselves, Tatiana, and the Lektor aboard the famed Orient Express, where Bond and Grant will engage in a life-or-death battle."
James Craver, Resident Scholar
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Review Analysis of From Russia, with Love
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book descript. of violence and chases - 20% Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30% Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30% How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20%
Tone of story
- suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
Time/era of story:
- 1930's-1950's
Spying/Terrorism Thriller
Yes
Cloak & Dagger Plotlets:
- main char. spying/sabotage
- preventing/finding assassin
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Who's the terrorist enemy here?
- commies!
Search for technology?
- spying technology
Is Romance a MAJOR (25%+) part of story?
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- spy
Age:
- 20's-30's
How much violence does he/she use?
- a significant amount
Ethnicity/Race
- British
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- killer
Eccentric:
Yes
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
Motive of antagonist
- insanity
The antagonists are:
- KGB
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- bulging muscles
Setting
Europe
Yes
European country:
- Turkey
Asia/Pacific
Yes
Asian country:
- Russia
City?
Yes
City:
- dangerous
Misc setting
- moving train
Style
Part of a series?
Yes
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths?
- 8 or more
Sex
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references
- descript of kissing
- descript. of breasts
Unusual forms of death
- perforation--bullets
- perforation--swords/knives
- exploded into bits
Unusual form of death?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
