Casino Royale is the first James Bond novel by author Ian Fleming. It would eventually pave the way for 11 other novels by Fleming himself in addition to 2 short story anthologies, followed by many additional Bond novels by other authors. Since being published in 1953 by Jonathan Cape, Casino Royale has been adapted for the screen three times; a 1954 CBS television episode of Climax!, a 1967 film spoof of the same name, and the twenty-first official film in the EON Productions Bond franchise scheduled for release on November 17th 2006. Once the new film is completed, Casino Royale will become the only Ian Fleming work to be adapted on more than two occasions.

Casino Royale was first released on April 13, 1953 in a United Kingdom hardcover edition by publishers Jonathan Cape[1]. The first paperback edition of Casino Royale in the United States was retitled by publisher American Popular Library in 1955 (this followed a hardcover edition with the original title). Fleming's suggestions for a new title, The Double-O Agent and The Deadly Gamble, were disregarded in favor of You Asked For It. The novel was subtitled "[Casino Royale]" and made reference to secret agent 007 as "Jimmy Bond" on the back cover. In 1960 the original title Casino Royale replaced You Asked For It for all further paperback editions in the United States.

When the book came to the UK in paperback form in 1955, readers were given their first glimpse of an image of secret agent James Bond on the book jacket. The image of Bond was based on a photograph of American actor Richard Conte, who would become known for roles in films such as Ocean's Eleven (1960) and The Godfather (1972).

(spoilers)

Monsieur Le Chiffre, "the cipher", is an agent for the Soviet assassination bureau SMERSH, running a baccarat game at a French casino to raise needed operational funds—namely, to recover SMERSH's money that he lost in a failed attempt to establish a chain of brothels.

Expert baccarat player James Bond (British secret agent 007), is assigned the job of beating Le Chiffre, in the hope that the agent's gambling debts will provoke SMERSH's killing him. After hours of intensive play, Bond manages to beat Le Chiffre, but only with extra money provided by Felix Leiter of the CIA, who is in attendance as a covert observer.

Bond has been provided with an assistant, the beautiful but emotionally turbulent Vesper Lynd, who becomes his lover. But she is holding a terrible secret—she is actually a Russian double agent and under orders to see that Bond does not escape Le Chiffre. With her unwilling connivance, Bond is captured and tortured by Le Chiffre, but Le Chiffre is assassinated by SMERSH. After Bond's recovery, during which he expresses an intention to resign from the Service, he spends his convalescence with Vesper Lynd, but becomes suspicious of her. Vesper commits suicide and her body is discovered by Bond, who reports to his superiors, tersely: "The bitch is dead now."