“Live and Let Die” is Bond as escapist adventure, moving from London through the United States to a Jamaica that Fleming plainly knew well. Some readers praise the pull of his prose, others the verbal duels between Bond and the villain or the scenes of sea and reef; some rate it above “Casino Royale”, others below. Some are bothered by the racial language of a novel from 1954, and some find the heroine dull.

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

Live and Let Die is the second novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series of stories. Set in London, the United States and Jamaica, it was first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1954. Fleming wrote the novel at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica before his first book, Casino Royale, was published; much of the background came from Fleming's travel in the US and knowledge of Jamaica.

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Reading order · James Bond

Full order & progress →

On screen

This book has been adapted for the screen once.

FilmLive and Let Die1973dir. Guy HamiltonIMDb

Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →

Where the score comes from

The sources average 6.9 across 186 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 56% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Spy & espionage average of 7.6. That is how 7.2 comes out.