How is this for an evocative passage from the second Bond novel? Her hair was black and fell to her shoulders. She had high cheekbones and a sensual mouth, and wore a dress of white silk. Her eyes were blue, alight and disdainful, but, as they gazed into his with a touch of humour, Bond realized that they contained a message. Solitaire watched his eyes on her and nonchalantly drew her forearms together so that the valley between her breasts deepened. The message was unmistakable. The beautiful, fortune-telling Solitaire is the prisoner (and criminal tool) of Mr Big – master of fear, artist in crime, and Voodoo Baron of Death. James Bond has no time for superstition, he knows that this criminal heavy hitter is also a top SMERSH operative and a real threat to international security. More than that, after tracking him through the jazz joints of Harlem to the everglades in Florida, and on to the Caribbean, 007 realizes that Big is one of the most dangerous men that he has ever faced. And no-one, not even the mysterious Solitaire, can be sure how their battle of wills is going to end…