Another enjoyable installment in the James Bond franchise. I liked seeing a softer side to Bond, after the difficulties he faced in his last mission (From Russia with love). The setting of this novel, on a tropical island off the coast of Jamaica, really gripped me. There were definitely parts that were not believable (giant squid- I’m looking at you), but it only made the mission seem more fantastic.

This is the first of Fleming’s Bond novels to have fallen in my estimation upon rereading. Not by much—I’m rounding my 4.5 star attitude back up to 5 for the sake of Goodreads—but it didn’t surprise me or grip me quite as viscerally as it did that first time.

The story begins with a pair of brutal but well-coordinated assassinations in Jamaica. Bond is called out of convalescent leave (he is still not quite fully recovered from the nearly fatal dose of poison given to him by Rosa Klebb at the end of From Russia with Love) and sent to investigate what looks, to the British authorities, like a diplomat’s hurried elopement with his secretary. M thinks this will be a chance for Bond to get fresh air and exercise on an easy field assignment. Bond, resentful, nevertheless obeys and suspects almost immediately upon his arrival in Jamaica that there is more to the story than his bosses believe.

A few chapters of pretty easy investigation point to Dr Julius No, a half German, half Chinese mystery man with a massive guano works on the nearby island of Crab Key. (Unless you are involved in chemistry, zoology, or the finer points of organic fertilizers, you will almost certainly have never read nor will ever read more about guano in your life.) Odd bits of information and dark rumor have spread about Dr No and his island, and Bond singlemindedly determines to check Crab Key and Dr No out.

This part of the book is, I found upon revisiting it, the weakest. There is intense forward drive to the plot in these chapters but almost no mystery—of course it’s Dr No. We intuit that immediately, and, to Fleming’s credit, so does Bond. The question is simply getting Bond to Crab Key as quickly as possible. The one standout sequence in these early chapters is that in which an assassin, attempting to stage an accidental death for Bond, places an enormous centipede in his bed as Bond sleeps. This is some of Fleming’s best suspense writing. If for nothing else, read Dr No for this scene.

The meat of the novel is Bond’s exploration of Crab Key. With him as guide and comrade is Quarrel, a Cayman Islander returning from Live and Let Die, and it’s on Crab Key that Bond meets Honeychile Rider, the borderline feral girl sneaking onto the most dangerous island in the Caribbean to collect exotic shells. She’s saving up for surgery to repair her nose, broken when a drunk assaulted her as a girl, and a chance to get away from Jamaica. Together the three are discovered by Dr No’s henchmen and spend several chapters evading the enemy in some really exciting and suspenseful passages. It is no spoiler to say, however, that they are eventually caught, and Bond is out through a horrific obstacle course meant to test the ability of mere human flesh to endure.

Dr No has its weaknesses. Some of the plot points edge up to “refrigerator movie” territory (why, for example, do the British authorities see that the missing diplomat’s radio transmitting station was burned to the ground and assume he’s just run off with his secretary?) and, as I mentioned, the villain is so obviously the distant and sinister sounding Dr Julius No that some parts of the early chapters feel perfunctory.

But when Dr No works, it works gangbusters. The relationships between the limited cast of characters are especially good. Bond’s with M continues to develop, and Bond has his first feelings of resentment or anger at his boss here, and M betrays a certain callousness toward Bond that—unless he doesn’t mean it—introduces some bitter irony into this otherwise strong and affectionate and almost father-son relationship. Bond’s relationship with Quarrel is a highlight, warm and collegial but with the distance imposed by Bond’s rank (Fleming himself compares Bond and Quarrel to a Scottish laird and his most trusted gamekeeper) and security clearance.

And the two staples of both novel Bond and movie Bond—the Bond girl and the Bond villain—are solid. Not the best, but rock solid. Honeychile Rider may even have the most interesting and tragic backstory of Bond’s heroines, and a palpable tone of regret tints the final chapter, as Bond prepares to leave Jamaica and makes a few arrangements for Honey for after he’s gone—because he knows he’ll be gone for good. Dr No is sinister but has a coherent and believable reason for what he’s doing, an abandoned child and failed imbezzler seeking privacy and independent wealth and to investigate the very nature of human weakness by breaking those who fall into his (prosthetic steel) hands. I’ve seen another reviewer refer to him as a Transhumanist. That’s not a bad way to think of him and his project. Like other of the more memorable villains of the Bond books, Dr No doesn’t want to rule the world, he just wants to dominate utterly the small part of it he thinks he is owed.

Finally, the continuously escalating action of the novel is its chief selling point. I was reminded—over a decade ago when I first read it—of The Most Dangerous Game. The parallel isn’t exact, but it’s close enough. Dr No has a razor-edged survivalist sensibility about it that makes it nigh impossible to break away from, especially since, whether you’ve read all the previous books in the original series or this is your first, Bond is clearly vulnerable. He gets hurt, he has to improvise, and he doesn’t succeed at everything he sets out to do. But Dr No doesn’t set him a test of his skills, still less his weapons or gadgets, but his endurance. It’s very good.

I’ve almost talked myself into just giving it a straight five stars, but the plot is still one of the lesser of the Fleming Bond canon and it’s got other minor weaknesses here or there. Still worth your while, though, if you’re looking for a classic thriller.

On this return visit to Jamaica and Crab Key I listened the excellent recent audiobook performance by British actor Hugh Quarshie, whom I only know as Queen Amidala’s chief of security. He is an excellent reader and does a fantastic job with the broad array of accents Fleming’s characters speak in—British, posh British, white and black Jamaican, Cayman Islander, Chinese, and the German-Chinese-American English idiolect of the evil Dr No himself. A great way to revisit this book.

From Russia, with Love (James Bond book #5) ends with a cliffhanger where you don’t know if Bond will survive. In Dr. No (book #6) Bond survives, but I wish there had been more about his recovery than the recap we get.

The Dr. No story is a fine adventure and No himself makes a compelling villain. I wish there had been subsequent stories with Julius No, or at last some more movies with him. The physical description of No, his background and his isolated island were my favorite parts of the story.

Honey Rider is a feisty and fun love interest for Bond and yes, I was picturing Ursula Andress when I read Honey’s scenes.

I’ve enjoyed going back and watching the films and reading the books and noting the many differences.