“Goldfinger” is a Bond novel with high stakes, in which a gold-smuggling inquiry grows into a plan to empty Fort Knox. Ian Fleming sends Bond after Auric Goldfinger, whom MI6 also suspects of ties to the Soviet agency SMERSH. Some readers find the book contemplative to the point of tiring and its two women oddly drawn. Anyone who likes a heist on a grand scale will find one here.

The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.

About the book

Goldfinger is the seventh novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. Written in January and February 1958, it was first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 23 March 1959. The story centres on the investigation by the British Secret Service operative James Bond into the gold-smuggling activities of Auric Goldfinger, who is also suspected by MI6 of being connected to SMERSH, the Soviet counter-intelligence organisation. As well as establishing the background to the smuggling operation, Bond uncovers a much larger plot: Goldfinger plans to steal the gold reserves of the United States from Fort Knox.

Description: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Reading order · James Bond

Full order & progress →

On screen

This book has been adapted for the screen once.

FilmGoldfinger1964dir. Guy HamiltonIMDb

Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →

Where the score comes from

The sources average 7.2 across 106 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 42% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Spy & espionage average of 7.6. That is how 7.4 comes out.