Sat 29 Oct 2016
Reviewed by Barry Gardner: DONALD HAMILTON – The Threateners.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
DONALD HAMILTON – The Threateners. Matt Helm #26. Fawcett Gold Medal, paperback origina1, 1992.
It’s become fashionable to curl the lip at series like Matt Helm, and speak of “formula,” and “predictable.” Well, okay; so what? Sausage and eggs haven’t changed a hell of a lot over the last 25 years either, but it’s still my favorite breakfast, and a Helm book is still pretty tasty, too.
An old flame of Helm’s pops up out of nowhere and is killed, along with Helm’s dog and the in-hiding author of a drug exposé book. Helm shepherds the widow to South America to retrieve material for another book, dodging both members of a rival government agency (Hamilton has used this device a lot; maybe a little too much) and the drug lord di tutti drug lords.
Ihere’s a few more killings, a couple of seductions, and a torture scene or two — Helm must be solid scar tissue by now. Sound familiar? Well, it is. If you’re looking for something new and different, look elsewhere. Me, I still like ’em just fine.
Bibliographical Note: There proved to be only one more Matt Helm adventure, that being The Damagers (Gold Medal, 1993).
October 29th, 2016 at 5:14 pm
I read some of the first books in the series. They are very good. One of the best spy series of Cold War.
October 29th, 2016 at 5:28 pm
I think everyone would agree that the first books in the series are the best, but Barry sums up my opinion of even those toward the end very well.
I reviewed one from 1969 a while ago on this blog, THE INTERLOPERS:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=32192
And here’s a link to a report on the TV version of the series, as written up by Michael Shonk:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=32025
Unfortunately the videos embedded in the review are no longer available on YouTube.
October 29th, 2016 at 5:27 pm
I remember when Helm kills a Canadian Maoist terrorist, one of the hardest scenes I read.
October 30th, 2016 at 8:50 pm
Some of the later Helm outings were a bit bloated by increased page count, and the South and Central American settings were over used.