Casino Royale

I'm going back to where the legend of James Bond began. It is a time before man landed on the moon, before Martin Luther King Jnr made his famous speech, and before a young, Scotsman by the name of Sean Connery signed on the dotted line to appear as the most popular spy in the world.
The very first James Bond.
Born in the mind of retired naval intelligence officer Ian Fleming, this globe-trotting Englishman would go on to entertain fans for over five decades (and counting), and influence an entire genre. Mr Bond is introduced to us to in the 1953 book Casino Royale, and over the next 213 pages we are taken on a ride that explores winning against the odds, the murky underground of the lives of spies, and a betrayal or two (apologies if you were expecting the 2006 film).
The novel takes us on a journey to France, where Agent 007 is tasked with bringing down a villain by the name of Le Chiffre, but not by the means you think. Capitalising on Le Chiffre's well known addiction to gambling, Bond's mission involves a high stakes game of baccarat, where he is to defeat and bankrupt his foe. His foe happens to be the treasurer of a French union and a member of the Russian secret service (SMERSH).
We meet CIA agent Felix Lieter in this novel, while Vesper Lynd is our protagonist's love interest (you may remember them both from the film version).
Having watched the film at least twice before reading the book, it struck me how different the two were.
My frustrations at a big part of the film being set in a casino were put to the side after reading the book, where every part of baccarat game is described in extreme detail. While basic plot elements remain the same, minor changes were made to the film version - changes which I believe were made for the better.
This is where the genius of Fleming comes into play.
For example, he knows full well that not all of his readers have been to a casino, and he doesn't assume that they have been to one. He describes almost everything in precise detail, as if he has abducted the reader and placed them inside his mind, in the scenes populated his imagination. Fleming starts by describing the rules of baccarat and some of the strategies (and odds) of the game that will be played out over the next section of the book, before diving into the interactions between our main hero and villain.
There is a part of the book that deals purely with what I can only describe as torture. The cane chair, of which the cane seat is removed and a naked man is strapped to in a seated position, his underparts protruding "through the seat of the chair towards the floor". Add a cane carpet-beater to that mix and you have a few pages of pure pain.  

As a standalone story it leaves this reader unsatisfied and hungry for more.  
Luckily for me (and others in the same situation), Fleming would write another 13 books centring around the life and times of one Mr J. Bond. It's a literary journey of which I'm all too happy to submit.
Unless it involves a cane chair.