Goldfinger. Ian Fleming Hardcover - 2008

In Ian Fleming's Goldfinger, we are introduced to Auric Goldfinger. This man is without a doubt the most phenomenal criminal Bond has ever faced!  This evil genius likes his cash in gold bars and his women dressed in gold paint - and now he is planning to steal all the gold in Fort Knox. That is, unless Secret Agent 007 can stop him! He must first take on two of the most memorable Bond villains: a human weapon named Oddjob and a luscious crime boss named Pussy Galore.

Originally titled The Richest Man in the World, Goldfinger is the seventh novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series (preceded by Dr. No and followed by For Your Eyes Only). Fleming structured the novel in three sections — “Happenstance,” “Coincidence,” and “Enemy Action” — which was how Goldfinger described Bond's three seemingly coincidental meetings with him.  As a whole, the novel centers on James Bonds’ investigation into the gold smuggling activities of Auric Goldfinger, the richest man in England, who is also suspected of being connected to the Soviet counter-intelligence organization. As well as establishing the background to the smuggling operation, Bond uncovers a much larger plot: Goldfinger’s plan to steal the gold reserves of the United States from Fort Knox.

Goldfinger was first published in the UK on 23 March 1959 as a hardcover edition by Jonathan Cape. The original first edition is 318 pages long with cover art — a skull with gold coins for the eyes and a rose in its mouth — provided by Richard Chopping. The book was dedicated to “gentle reader, William Plomer,” the editor of a number of the Fleming novels.