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The Mona Intercept
A Cuban spymaster. An unstoppable U.S. agent. And a thriller plot as explosive as today's headlines.
Jimmy Columbus, master terrorist, still dreams of his lost private empire in Cuba. From his base in the Florida Keys, he strikes out on a ruthless wave of hijacking and murder to make his bitter dream come true...
Philip Martin, veteran counterterrorist, must take to the high seas and stop Columbus at any cost. His assignment becomes strangely complicated when he is hurled into a tempestuous duel of wits--and hearts--with his beautiful, gray-eyed superior...
An awkward young photographer, an adventure-hungry doctor, and an alluring, haunted widow are plunged from the blissful world of pleasure cruises into a nightmare on the high seas, a nightmare that will change their lives forever--if it doesn't kill them first....
Jimmy Columbus, master terrorist, still dreams of his lost private empire in Cuba. From his base in the Florida Keys, he strikes out on a ruthless wave of hijacking and murder to make his bitter dream come true...
Philip Martin, veteran counterterrorist, must take to the high seas and stop Columbus at any cost. His assignment becomes strangely complicated when he is hurled into a tempestuous duel of wits--and hearts--with his beautiful, gray-eyed superior...
An awkward young photographer, an adventure-hungry doctor, and an alluring, haunted widow are plunged from the blissful world of pleasure cruises into a nightmare on the high seas, a nightmare that will change their lives forever--if it doesn't kill them first....
510 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 12, 1980
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28 people want to read
About the author
Donald Hamilton
102 books108 followersDonald Hamilton was a U.S. writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction but also crime fiction and Westerns such as The Big Country. He is best known for his long-running Matt Helm series (1960-1993), which chronicles the adventures of an undercover counter-agent/assassin working for a secret American government agency.
Hamilton began his writing career in 1946, fiction magazines like Collier's Weekly and The Saturday Evening Post. His first novel Date With Darkness was published in 1947; over the next forty-six years he published a total of thirty-eight novels. Most of his early novels whether suspense, spy, and western published between 1954 and 1960, were typical paperback originals of the era: fast-moving tales in paperbacks with lurid covers. Several classic western movies, The Big Country and The Violent Men, were adapted from two of his western novels.
The Matt Helm series, published by Gold Medal Books, which began with Death of a Citizen in 1960 and ran for 27 books, ending in 1993 with The Damagers, was more substantial.
Helm, a wartime agent in a secret agency that specialized in the assassination of Nazis, is drawn back into a post-war world of espionage and assassination after fifteen years as a civilian. He narrates his adventures in a brisk, matter-of-fact tone with an occasional undertone of deadpan humor. He describes gunfights, knife fights, torture, and (off-stage) sexual conquests with a carefully maintained professional detachment, like a pathologist dictating an autopsy report or a police officer describing an investigation. Over the course of the series, this detachment comes to define Helm's character. He is a professional doing a job; the job is killing people.
Hamilton was a skilled outdoorsman and hunter who wrote non-fiction articles for outdoor magazines and published a book-length collection of them. For several years he lived on his own yacht, then relocated to Sweden where he resided until his death in 2006.
Hamilton began his writing career in 1946, fiction magazines like Collier's Weekly and The Saturday Evening Post. His first novel Date With Darkness was published in 1947; over the next forty-six years he published a total of thirty-eight novels. Most of his early novels whether suspense, spy, and western published between 1954 and 1960, were typical paperback originals of the era: fast-moving tales in paperbacks with lurid covers. Several classic western movies, The Big Country and The Violent Men, were adapted from two of his western novels.
The Matt Helm series, published by Gold Medal Books, which began with Death of a Citizen in 1960 and ran for 27 books, ending in 1993 with The Damagers, was more substantial.
Helm, a wartime agent in a secret agency that specialized in the assassination of Nazis, is drawn back into a post-war world of espionage and assassination after fifteen years as a civilian. He narrates his adventures in a brisk, matter-of-fact tone with an occasional undertone of deadpan humor. He describes gunfights, knife fights, torture, and (off-stage) sexual conquests with a carefully maintained professional detachment, like a pathologist dictating an autopsy report or a police officer describing an investigation. Over the course of the series, this detachment comes to define Helm's character. He is a professional doing a job; the job is killing people.
Hamilton was a skilled outdoorsman and hunter who wrote non-fiction articles for outdoor magazines and published a book-length collection of them. For several years he lived on his own yacht, then relocated to Sweden where he resided until his death in 2006.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 6, 2012
This 1980 work was Donald Hamilton's final stand alone novel (the final 9 entries in the Matt Helm series were still to come). The villain, Jimmy Columbus, is monomaniacal about returning to Cuba 22 years after being ousted by Castro. At first this seemed far-fetched, but I realized there are still Cubans in Miami plotting a return after 54 years. Some coincidences in the story seem a bit much, but the nautical lore and action sequences make up for the excesses.
Thriller - Jimmy Columbus was forced out after Castro came to power. He still dreams of returning and reclaiming his former position. On his trail is Phil Martin, aka Felipe Martinez, a government agent tasked to stop potential terrorists. Columbus has started hijacking private boats to finance his glorious return to Cuba. Along the way he manages to piss off some former boat owners who have survived his various nefarious schemes. Harold Ullman and Janet McHugh, both who survived Columbus' attacks on their persons and/or property decide separately to take matters into their own hands.
Thriller - Jimmy Columbus was forced out after Castro came to power. He still dreams of returning and reclaiming his former position. On his trail is Phil Martin, aka Felipe Martinez, a government agent tasked to stop potential terrorists. Columbus has started hijacking private boats to finance his glorious return to Cuba. Along the way he manages to piss off some former boat owners who have survived his various nefarious schemes. Harold Ullman and Janet McHugh, both who survived Columbus' attacks on their persons and/or property decide separately to take matters into their own hands.
November 9, 2015
This book is a bit of a unique masterpiece. This is not a blazing hot, white knuckle, sexy spy/counter-spy novel. This is a realistic story of a fictional case of kidnapping, murder, piracy, inter-governmental department politics, love affairs, revenge... And the list keeps growing. At times I started to think this was too much. Too slow. But I just kept reading. Never had to grit my teeth to keep going. Just takes time to describe a conspiracy of this magnitude and complexity. And author Donald Hamilton succeeds masterfully.
I came to this novel after reading some of Hamilton's early westerns, and a few Matt Helms. But this one is by far the best so far. Wish he had done more like this.
I came to this novel after reading some of Hamilton's early westerns, and a few Matt Helms. But this one is by far the best so far. Wish he had done more like this.
June 15, 2012
Read this year's ago and still count it as one of my favorites. It has a huge cast of characters who weave in and out of the plot, pushing it to a suspenseful climax. A tough thing to do, but Hamilton did it masterfully.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews