List of James Bond novels and short stories
Books, by publication sequence

List of James Bond novels and short stories

Section Title: Books, by publication sequence
Table Section Text: None

Title	Author	Publisher	Date	Length (first edition)	Plot	Ref.

Casino Royale	Ian Fleming	Jonathan Cape	13 April 1953	213 pp	James Bond is sent to play against and bankrupt Le Chiffre, the paymaster for a SMERSH-controlled trade union, in a high-stakes baccarat game in France.

Live and Let Die	Ian Fleming	Jonathan Cape	5 April 1954	234 pp	Bond is sent to the United States to investigate "Mr. Big", an agent of SMERSH and an underworld voodoo leader who is suspected of selling 17th century gold coins to finance Soviet spy operations in America.

Moonraker	Ian Fleming	Jonathan Cape	5 April 1955	256 pp	Bond joins M at Blades to stop a member, Sir Hugo Drax, cheating at bridge. Bond is subsequently seconded onto Drax's staff on the "Moonraker", Britain's first nuclear missile project.

Diamonds Are Forever	Ian Fleming	Jonathan Cape	26 March 1956	257 pp	Bond follows a diamond smuggling ring to America and establishes it is run by an American gang, "The Spangled Mob". He closes down the pipeline by killing one of the heads of the gang, Seraffimo Spang, in a train crash; he then travels to Sierra Leone to kill the other head of the gang, Jack Spang.

From Russia, with Love	Ian Fleming	Jonathan Cape	8 April 1957	253 pp	Bond is targeted by SMERSH to be killed in a compromising situation on the Orient Express. He is lured to Istanbul by an attractive young cipher clerk, Corporal Tatiana Romanova, who claims to be defecting and bringing a Spektor, a Russian decoding device much coveted by MI6.

Dr. No	Ian Fleming	Jonathan Cape	31 March 1958	256 pp	Commander John Strangways, the head of MI6 Station J in Kingston, Jamaica, and his secretary both disappear and Bond is sent to investigate the matter.

Goldfinger	Ian Fleming	Jonathan Cape	23 March 1959	318 pp	Bond investigates the activities of Auric Goldfinger, a gold smuggler whom M suspects of being connected to SMERSH and financing their western networks with his gold.

For Your Eyes Only	Ian Fleming	Jonathan Cape	11 April 1960	252 pp	"From a View to a Kill" Bond investigates the murder of a motorcycle dispatch-rider and the theft of his top-secret documents by a motorcycle-riding assassin.

Thunderball	Ian Fleming	Jonathan Cape	27 March 1961	253 pp	An international, non-aligned terrorist organisation, SPECTRE, has hijacked a NATO plane and seized its two nuclear bombs, which it uses to blackmail the western world.

The Spy Who Loved Me	Ian Fleming	Jonathan Cape	16 April 1962	221 pp	A young woman is alone, working at a motel when two thugs, hired by the owner, turn up to burn it down for the insurance.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service	Ian Fleming	Jonathan Cape	1 April 1963	288 pp	Bond continues to search for Ernst Stavro Blofeld after the Thunderball incident. Through contact with the College of Arms in London Bond finds Blofeld based in Switzerland with a co-conspirator, Irma Bunt.

You Only Live Twice	Ian Fleming	Jonathan Cape	16 March 1964	255 pp	After the murder of his wife, Bond begins to let his life slide. M gives him a last chance of redemption, to persuade the Japanese to share radio transmissions captured from the Soviet Union.

The Man with the Golden Gun	Ian Fleming	Jonathan Cape	1 April 1965	221 pp	Bond returns to London having been brainwashed by the Russians and assigned to kill M: the attempt ends in failure. To re-prove his worth, M sends him to Jamaica with the seemingly impossible mission of killing Francisco "Pistols" Scaramanga, a Cuban assassin who is believed to have killed several British secret agents.

Octopussy and The Living Daylights	Ian Fleming	Jonathan Cape	23 June 1966	94 pp	The first edition contained only two stories: "Octopussy" and "The Living Daylights"; subsequent editions have also contained "The Property of a Lady" and "007 in New York".

Sentence(s)

Published in 1953, Casino Royale is the first James Bond book by Fleming.

final_sentence: Published in 1953, Casino Royale is the first James Bond book by Fleming.