Line #21 Literature/LiveAndLetDie


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8	The second ''Literature/JamesBond'' novel by Ian Fleming, published in 1954.
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10	Upon returning from leave after the events of ''Literature/CasinoRoyale'', Bond is dispatched to New York City to investigate the sudden appearance of smuggled gold coins in Harlem. The case later takes him to Florida and then Jamaica, and pits him against the Harlem crime boss Mr. Big.
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12	The novel would later become the basis of the [[Film/LiveAndLetDie eighth Bond film]] and parts of it would later be incorporated into ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'' and ''Film/LicenceToKill''. It got a RadioDrama adaptation on BBC Radio 4 in 2019, with Creator/TobyStephens as Bond.
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14	!!This novel provides examples of:
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16	* ActionizedSequel: While ''Casino Royale'' is far from violence-free, Bond really only gets into one "fight" (which he loses). Here, both the good and bad guys have a ''lot'' more chances to resort to violence, and that's not getting into all the hostile wildlife Bond has to deal with.
17	* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Part of why Bond swims on to Mr. Big's island even after [[spoiler:he's planted the mine on Mr. Big's yacht]]. Though it's debatable whether this really made any difference, since by that point the bad guys had already spotted him.
18	* AMFMCharacterization: Felix is a {{jazz}} fan. So much that when he was younger, he wrote a few pieces on Dixieland jazz for the ''New York Amsterdam News''.
19	* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:Felix Leiter]] literally loses one of each when the Robber drops him into a SharkPool.
20	* ArtisticLicenceLaw: Strictly speaking, Felix Leiter would be outside his jurisdiction for much of the Mr Big case, since the CIA cannot operate inside the US.
21	* AuthorAppeal: Fleming had a lifelong interest in pirates, from the books he read as a child to films like ''Film/CaptainBlood''. From his Goldeneye, Fleming had visited Port Royal in Jamaica, which was once the home port of Sir Henry Morgan.
22	* BadToTheLastDrop: At once point, Bond and Solitaire are forced to recoup at a local GreasySpoon, which serves them this alongside an equally terrible breakfast.
23	* BadassBystander: The Pullman porter who helps keep Bond and Solitaire safe on the train to Florida.
24	* BigBad: With a name like Mr. Big, he's already halfway to having it as his official title.
25	* BondOneLiner: Not from Bond himself (still far from the quipping-and-killing machine the movies would make him), but the villains make a pithy little commentary on the shark-mangled Felix:
26	-->"He disagreed with something that ate him."
27	* {{Bowdlerization}}: As discussed [[http://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/james-bond-novels-that-were-edited.html here]], several of Fleming's less-sensitive moments were changed or deleted outright when this book first hit the United States.
28	* ContemplateOurNavels: An ''extremely'' bizarre version happens about three-quarters through the book, when Bond's Caribbean flight is caught in a storm and Bond ponders the cruelty of the Universe and just how long he's got left to live. Commercial flight was fairly new and scary back in the 1950s, but it's still {{Padding}} of the first order.
29	* DirtyCommunists: SMERSH is at it again, this time through Mr. Big's criminal activities.
30	* ExplodingFishtanks: The result of the firefight between Bond and Robber.
31	* {{Fingore}}: Mr. Big orders Tee-Hee to break one of Bond's fingers.
32	* FunetikAksent: How most of Harlem's black people talk.
33	* FunWithAcronyms: Mr Big is not only physically very large, and the "big man" of Harlem crime (making it a MeaningfulName), but his real name is '''B'''uonaparte '''I'''gnace '''G'''allia. Other kids nicknamed him "Big Boy" when he was young.
34	* HandicappedBadass: A mild example. Bond spends much of the novel this way once Tee-Hee breaks his left little finger on Mr. Big's orders. Even after a doctor sets the break, it still gives Bond trouble now and then.
35	* HazardousWater: To ensure his island's privacy, Mr. Big has his men dumping offal into the surrounding waters, putting all the sharks and barracudas in the area into a feeding frenzy.
36	* JustDesserts: Bond feeds [[spoiler:the Robber]] to the shark that [[spoiler:mauled Felix]], and later in the book, [[spoiler:Mr. Big]] gets devoured by a swarm of sharks and barracuda.
37	* KickTheDog: Robber shoots seabirds for funzies.
38	* LiteralAsskicking: When Bond frees himself from Tee-Hee's grip, he bashes his head with his [[PistolWhipping empty pistol]], hits him [[GroinAttack in the groin]] and plants a foot in the seat of his pants to send him down a staircase to his death.
39	* LivingLieDetector: Mr. Big uses Solitaire like this, and apparently she really can detect lies (though she doesn't always tell the truth to Mr. Big about what she senses, preferring to spare those she believes are decent people). She believes it's due to her PsychicPowers, but we never learn whether she's right or not.
40	* ManlyTears: When Mr. Big is defeated, Bond, shaken by the whole ordeal, sheds tears.
41	* MercifulMinion: Felix befriends the {{mook}} who is holding him prisoner; he releases Felix with only a token beating despite orders from Mr Big to inflict more serious injury.
42	* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: A core theme of the book, and one of the key differences between the white Bond and the black antagonists. That said, Bond does admit that he understands the power Voodoo can have on an individual's mind, and Solitaire, a white woman who grew up in that environment, is a lot less dismissive of it.
43	* PirateBooty: The treasure of the English pirate Sir Henry Morgan, which Mr. Big discovered in Jamaica and is smuggling into the United States.
44	* ScoobyDooHoax: Mr. Big's operations are dosed with a bit of HollywoodVoodoo and he encourage rumours that he is really a zombie or even Baron Samedi himself. He even has the stereotypical ''Scooby-Doo'' villain motive: smuggling stuff around the country.
45	* SharkPool: Mr. Big has one in a Florida warehouse, where [[spoiler:Felix gets mauled]] and Bond later feeds [[spoiler:the Robber]] to the shark in revenge.
46	* ShoutOut: At one point, Bond reads Patrick Leigh Fermor's Caribbean travelogue ''The Traveller's Tree''. A friend of Ian Fleming's, Patrick Leigh Fermor was one of several men whose wartime exploits have led to suggestions that he was the inspiration (or rather, one of the inspirations) for James Bond.
47	* SpitefulSpit: After one of Harlem's inhabitants sees Bond and Felix strolling by, he spits.
48	* ATasteOfTheLash: When Solitaire is "reading" Bond, Mr. Big lashes her to remind who is in charge.
49	* TentacledTerror: An octopus grabs Bond's legs, forcing him to take action against it. This in turn reveals his location to Mr. Big's men and he's caught shortly after.
50	* ThreateningShark: Sharks are present around Mr. Big's island, but Bond is more worried about Barracudas when he swims there. Fleming actually goes out of his way to explain that sharks typically don't attack people of their own accord, but [[spoiler:the ones who hang around Mr. Big's island have become accustomed to his followers throwing blood and offal into the water every night]].
51	* TitleDrop: While discussing the operation with Felix and Captain Dexter, the latter notes that, until the case is ripe, they have a policy in regards to Mr. Big that goes "live and let live". Bond then answers that his is "live and let die".
52	* {{Tuckerization}}: Fleming named Bond's alias Ivar Bryce after a friend of his, while Strangways was named after [=MI6=]'s station chief in Jamaica.
53	* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Played with; Bond internally monologues about his plan to invade Mr. Big's island, and the most important part goes off without a hitch, but there ''are'' a number of unexpected setbacks.
54	* VillainsWantMercy: When the Robber winds up dangling above the SharkPool he'd intended to throw Bond into, he immediately starts begging for mercy and swears to tell Bond everything he knows. Averted with Mr. Big, whose eyes "held no appeal for help" even when [[spoiler:he's half-dead from the mine Bond planted on his yacht and [[ThreateningShark the local wildlife is about to finish the job]]]].
55	* WhatADrag: Mr. Big ultimately plans to kill Bond and Solitaire by ''keelhauling'' them. Through coral. And [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill shark-and-barracuda-infested waters]]. [[spoiler:Ultimately subverted, as the mine Bond had planted on Mr. Big's yacht goes off before our heroes actually hit the coral]].
56	* YourDaysAreNumbered: Cited literally when Bond gets a fake TimeBomb accompanied by a written death threat.
57	-->'THE HEART OF THIS CLOCK HAS STOPPED TICKING,' they read. 'THE BEATS OF YOUR OWN HEART ARE NUMBERED, I KNOW THAT NUMBER AND I HAVE STARTED TO COUNT.'

Context Literature / LiveAndLetDie