Bond, a shattered man after the death of his wife at the hands of SPECTRE founder Ernst Stavro Blofeld, has gone to pieces as an agent, endangering himself and his fellow operatives. M, unwilling to accept the loss of one of his best men, sends 007 to Japan for one last, near-impossible mission with the hopes of bolstering his spirits. But Japan proves to be Bond's downfall, leading him to a mysterious residence known as the "Castle of Death," where he encounters an old enemy revitalized. All the omens suggest that this is the end for the British agent and, for once, Bond himself seems unable to disagree.
A British author and journalist. IAN FLEMING, creator of the world's best-known secret agent, was consultant on foreign affairs to the *London Sunday Times*. In all, he wrote thirteen **James Bond** novels. The twelfth, *You Only Live Twice*, is published in hardcover by New American Library; the thirteenth, *The Man with the Golden Gun*, was published in the spring of 1965. Mr. Fleming died August 12, 1964, at the age of fifty-six.
