Goldfinger, Ian Fleming's seventh Bond novel, takes the British secret agent around the world to stop a gold-obsessed megalomaniac. Auric Goldfinger is cruel, cunning, and frustratingly cautious. He cheats at Canasta and is a big-time crook who constantly engages in shady dealings in everyday life. He is the kind of man that James Bond despises. Therefore, it is fortunate for Bond that he is tasked by the Bank of England and MI5 to find out what the richest man in the country plans to do with his ill-gotten wealth and what his connection is to SMERSH, the feared Soviet corps that hunts spies. But once he infiltrates this dangerous criminal's organization, 007 realizes that Goldfinger's plans are more grandiose and deadly than anyone could have ever imagined.