Diamonds Are Forever is the fourth novel in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. It was first published by Jonathan Cape on March 26, 1956.

In 1971 it became the seventh film in the EON Productions film franchise and the film in that series to star Sean Connery as James Bond.

Plot summary: The novel takes place just over two months from the end of Moonraker, which ended with James Bond taking a short holiday. When Diamonds Are Forever begins, M instructs Bond to infiltrate a smuggling ring, which is running diamonds from African mines to the United States. Bond’s job is to travel down the “pipeline” as far as he can and find out who is behind it all. Under the name of Peter Franks, a petty crook already known as a diamond smuggler, he meets a mysterious “go-between” named Tiffany Case, with whom he falls in love. Bond discovers that the smuggling ring is operated by a ruthless American gang called “The Spangled Mob”, which is run by the brothers Jack Spang and Seraffimo Spang. Also part of the Spangled Mob are Wint and Kidd who, along with Tiffany and certain parts of how the smuggling pipeline works, are the only things retained for the film.

As Bond learns throughout the novel, the pipeline begins in Africa where a dentist would pay miners to smuggle diamonds in their mouth which the dentist would extract during a routine appointment. From there the dentist would take the diamonds and rendezvous with a German pilot who would transport the diamonds to London via helicopter. In London, Tiffany would get an assignment from a contact only known as ABC, she would then meet with “the hire” (in this case, Bond) and explain to that person how to smuggle the diamonds to New York City. The pipeline ends in Las Vegas where Seraffimo Spang owns the Tiara hotel and a ghost town that headquarters the Spangled Mob, named “Spectreville” (Spectreville actually has no connection whatsoever to Bond’s nemesis SPECTRE, which appears later in Thunderball and is established at the start of the James Bond film series in Dr No).

Felix Leiter plays a major part in the story, assisting Bond with inside information on crooked horse racing. They find that they are both investigating the same people. Leiter has left the CIA due to injuries sustained in Live and Let Die and is working for Pinkerton’s as a private detective. Bond is captured by the Mob and tortured, but escapes with the assistance of Case. The diamond pipeline is destroyed.

See also:

• Bond novels: Ian Fleming