The Property of a Lady : Bond is tasked with identifying a top ranking Soviet spy during the auction of a Faberge art in Sootheby’s in London. It should come as no surprise that China butchers it the worst: 007 Averts The Plot (Although, they might be onto something here...) So, when I think of James Bond, I think of this super-spy guy who solves his missions by killing enemies, while getting all the dangerous, beautiful women.

Dexter Smythe is a retired intelligence agent drinking himself near to death in Jamaica. Note irony in that Ian Fleming was doing the same. When Smythe gets a visit from James Bond, he sort of knows it is trouble, as Major Smythe has been keeping a big secret since the end of WWII. It's difficult for me to even discuss The Living Daylights because (guh!) I haven't (re)watched the movie yet, and this just throws off my entire life. I might revisit this review once we do reach that movie.

"The Living Daylights":

Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-05-10 12:01:02 Associated-names Fleming, Ian, 1908-1964. Living daylights Boxid IA40111114 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier The Living Daylights": My favorite of the three stories finds Bond in Berlin with a sniper rifle, tasked with eliminating a KGB assassin sent to kill a double agent trying to escape to the west. As he awaits the moment of truth, Bond tries to come to terms with a mission where he's expected to kill in cold blood -- something he finds distasteful. He attempts to take joy in life, which usually comes easy to him, but the dark cloud of his looming murder hangs over him, and he can't shake it... until he sees a pretty girl with a cello. Bond falls in love with her -- well, not really, but he is intoxicated. Likely, he is clinging to the promise of happiness, of the greatest pleasure in life, in the face of his rendezvous with death. When he discovers that the beautiful cellist is the assassin, he makes a split-second decision that may surprise anyone who hasn't seen the movie. Why Bond doesn't kill her is likely a mix of different factors. First, his well-established weakness is women and his drive to protect them. But more than that, the cellist was Bond's tether to life, the assurance that he was more than just a killer, and now he's being asked to kill her, and effectively kill the last shred of humanity in himself as he does. So Bond flips everyone the bird and spares both her life and his own soul, settling for scaring the living daylights out of her. McLusky, John; Gammidge, Henry; Hern, Anthony; Fleming, Ian; Horak, Yaroslav (2011). The James Bond Omnibus Vol.2. London: Titan Books. ISBN 978-1-84856-432-9.

In the second story, a Soviet scientist is planning to defect through Berlin one day next week. The KGB is aware of this and has sent their most accomplished sniper to Berlin. Bond is given the assignment of killing the sniper. He is not an he is not comfortable with this despite his double O status. This is very reminiscent of the Timothy Dalton movie.

And so we come to the end of Ian Fleming’s original run of James Bond. This is a short story collection, published post-mortem at the height of the spy craze that was caused as a direct result of the successful 007 film franchise. Sean Connery had been in four Bond films to that point, with a fifth on the way, and by this point it was assumed (rightfully so) that regardless of any legal issues from Thunderball, 007 was going to live on for quite some time. Cashing in with the last of Fleming’s remaining stories would have been an easy call to make, especially since Fleming himself had planned to do so anyway before his untimely death. The short story also includes Kenneth Snowman as an ally of Bond. Snowman, in reality, was a master jeweler and one of the leading experts on Carl Fabergé. "The Property of a Lady" features a number of notes on the items for auction, one of which references a book by Kenneth Snowman.