Hired to guard the gifts at an upper-class wedding, Ben Gates, believing this to be a simple assignment, finds his reputation on the line when someone slips sleeping pills into his coffee and tries to steal everything, which results in murder. Original.
È il romanzo in cui fa la sua prima apparizione James Bond e in cui sono già presenti i tipici ingredienti della serie: il fascinoso 007 con licenza d'uccidere; la bella Vesper Lynd, tenera e tragica; il malvagio e imprendibile Le Chiffre. Ma c'è anche la rappresentazione del mondo delle sale da gioco della Francia meridionale, che Fleming ricostruisce in modo impeccabile, consegnando intatto al lettore il fascino di quel mondo e di quella società.
Travis McGee is too busy with his houseboat to pay attention to the little old man with the missing postage stamps. Except these are no ordinary stamps. They are rare stamps. Four hundred thousand dollars worth of rare. And if McGee doesn't recognize their value, perhaps Mary Alice McDermit does, a six-foot knockout who knows all the ways to a boat bum's heart. Only it's not McGee's heart that's in danger. Because a syndicate killer has put a contract on McGee. A killer who knows something about stamps . . . and even more about McGee.