Fleming’s final Bond collection brings together four stories set across the aftermath of the Second World War and the early Cold War. “Octopussy” confronts a former British officer with a crime committed amid the collapse of Nazi Germany; “The Living Daylights” sends Bond to divided Berlin to protect a British agent crossing from the East; and “The Property of a Lady” turns a Sotheby’s auction into a counterintelligence operation.
“007 in New York” is a much shorter assignment in which Bond travels to warn a former agent that her relationship may have compromised her. The collection ranges from wartime guilt to KGB tradecraft, showing how Fleming repeatedly connected private motives, luxury settings and professional espionage to the political divisions of post-war Europe and the wider Atlantic world.
