Casino Royale is the first novel by the British author Ian Fleming. Published in 1953, it is the first James Bond book, and it paved the way for a further eleven novels and two short story collections by Fleming, followed by numerous continuation Bond novels by other authors. The first US edition of Ian Fleming’s novel Casino Royale was published with the title ‘You Asked for It’; it took a few years for Bond to attract a fanbase in the States. The Bond books really became successful in the US when John F. Kennedy declared himself a fan. Indeed, in his book about Bond and Fleming, For Your Eyes Only, Ben Macintyre reveals that both John F. Kennedy and his assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, were reading Ian Fleming novels the night before Kennedy’s assassination. In Casino Royale, the main story is between James Bond, British secret agent 007, and Le Chiffre, an agent controlled by the Communist Russians. Le Chiffre has used Soviet money meant for a Communist-controlled trade union to invest in brothels. This gets him into trouble when the French outlaw prostitution. The Soviet arch-spy agency SMERSH may be on his trail and if they catch him they will kill him. Le Chiffre's last resort is to remake the money through gambling. He goes to the Casino Royale in the north of France. Bond is an excellent gambler and his mission is to defeat Le Chiffre at the baccarat table and bankrupt him… Enjoy free online English audiobook “Casino Royale”, a novel by Ian Fleming.
