You are so right about how deftly Fleming gives a social and historical perspective.

Fleming does the same in the two stories I wrote about. He gracefully conveys that these take place when Castro is about to topple Batista, J. Edgar Hoover is running the FBI, and the Caribbean still seethes Nazis who came after the war.

Yet Fleming's geopolitical context never slows the pace or devolves into a tract. That takes a lot of skill. Thank you for giving me an opening to say this!