At the beginning
of Dr No we find Bond being chastised by M for having nearly
being killed at the end of From Russia, With Love. His solution
is to re-equip Bond with more a more suitable weapon to the Beretta
he had been using until now and then sends him on a "holiday"
assignment to Jamaica, where an agent has disappeared. In
common with Live And Let Die, the book is full of local colour
derived from the Jamaican surroundings and luckily for the reader,
Bond's assignment turns out to be much more than the holiday envisaged
by M. It also features one of the most memorable heroines, Honeychile
Rider, who Bond first encounters naked on the beach of an island
owned by the sinister Dr No.
Bond takes
a single room with shower in Blue Hills Hotel "a comfortable old-fashioned
hotel with modern trimmings", probably based on the Blue Mountain
Inn. The balcony to his room on which he breakfasts overlooks a
"riot of tropical gardens to Kingston, five miles below" and once
again he spends most of his time with Quarrel, the Cayman Islander
we first meet in Live
And Let Die, who takes Bond to "The Joy Boat" restaurant,
down on Kingston harbour. The restaurant is owned by his friend
Pus-Feller, named on account of his one-time fight with a big octopus
and to "the throb and twang of calypso music" they eat broiled lobster,
steak and native vegetables, washed down with a gin and tonic with
a lime for Bond and a Red Stripe for Quarrel.
Bond spends
the next day in Kingston at King's House, where he meets the Governor
and then the Colonial Secretary for information on the case. The
following day Bond and Quarrel make an early start for Beau Dessert,
taking the Junction Road to the North Coast. Bond is planning to
pay a visit to Crab Key, thirty miles north of Galina Point in Jamaica
and 60 miles south of Cuba. Before setting off, Bond undertakes
three days of training under Quarrel's supervision and the two eventually
set off in a small canoe destined for the mangrove swamps of Crab
Key.
Dr No
was turned into the first Bond film, starring Sean Connery, and
takes few liberties with the book.
Follow the
links below for the books and films:
Doctor
No 
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