Thunderball presents the blueprint for a monstrous crime that could be just around the corner in history. James Bond is in disgrace. His monthly medical report is critical of the high living that is ruining his health, and M packs him off for a fortnight to a nature-cure clinic to be tuned-up to his former pitch of exceptional fitness. Furiously, Bond undergoes the shame of the carrot juice and nut-cutlet regime-and thereby minutely upsets the plans of SPECTRE, a new adversary, more deadly, more ruthless even than Smersh. Who is SPECTRE? What are its plans? Alas, the organization is all too realistically described, its plans all too contemporary for comfort. Of all James Bond's adversaries, the Chief of SPECTRE casts the darkest shadow.
