From Russia with Love

First published in 1957, this novel sends James Bond to Istanbul after a young Russian clerk, Tatiana Romanova, offers to defect with a Spektor cipher machine if Bond collects her. The invitation is a SMERSH operation meant to kill him and disgrace the Secret Service. Bond works with the Turkish agent Darko Kerim, moves through the city's Soviet offices and gypsy camps, and boards the Orient Express for the return west. On the train he faces Red Grant, an assassin travelling as a fellow Englishman, while the decoder and the girl remain the bait. The book is a Cold War spy thriller built around a trap rather than a treasure hunt.

Bound in black cloth, cover blocked in red and white with a pattern. Dark grey slipcase with colour picture printed paper front and silver logo and signature on back.