Bond becomes his opponent in a game of baccarat – a game set on a ‘luminous and sparkling stage’, with violence lurking in the wings. Le Chiffre’s unsavoury predilections have left him bankrupt and desperate for money, and his defeat lies in the hands of ‘the finest gambler available to the Service’.
Darker and more visceral than those new to Fleming’s novels might imagine, Casino Royale plunges Bond into a battle of luck, wits and physical endurance against Le Chiffre, a corrupt agent of the feared Soviet organisation, SMERSH.
