Night Walker

by Donald Hamilton

Mystery fans in search of pure, unadulterated pulp noir should look no further than Donald Hamilton's 1954 Night Walker, a classic whodunit that is being reissued by Hard Case Crime for the first time in more than 30 years.

David Young is a lieutenant in the United States Naval Reserve, returning to active duty. On his way to Norfolk Naval Base in the middle of the night, Young hitches a ride with Lawrence Wilson, an ill-tempered man who explains how he was recently fired from the Navy Department for alleged seditious activities. Young is suddenly attacked by the stranger and loses consciousness. When he awakens, he is laying in a hospital bed with his head wrapped in bandages. The nurse calls him "Mr. Wilson" and informs him that he is lucky to be alive after such a horrific car accident. Things get even stranger when his supposed wife -- a brunette bombshell named Elizabeth -- checks the still-sedated Young out of the hospital and takes him home. Without even realizing it, Young becomes the main target of a killer -- or killers -- involved in an intricate Communist plot that threatens the security of the nation.



It's a testament to Hamilton's narrative brilliance that Night Walker is just as wildly compelling today as it was when it was originally released in 1954. This timeless pulp classic has it all: down-and-dirty fall guys, sexy damsels in distress, sadistic villains, elaborate conspiracies -- an absolute must-read for any and all discerning connoisseurs of mystery. Paul Goat Allen

Cover art for Dell First Edition 27 by Carl Bobertz

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Noir, Fiction, Pulp, Thriller, Mystery Thriller

252 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Donald 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.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

While hitchhiking to Norfolk to report for active duty, Navy Lieutenant David Young is smashed over the head with a tire iron and left for dead in a burning car. When he comes to, burned and bandaged in the hospital, everyone thinks he's Larry Wilson, the man who picked him up. It turns out Larry Wilson had a lot of reasons for wanting people to think he died in a fiery car crash...

Donald Hamilton is famous for the Matt Helm spy series, of which I have read none. I think this one of the Hard Case books that was reprinted because it was the cheapest of the author's works to secure the rights for.

Faking your own death with a hitchhiker's corpse is old hat in crime fiction. Hamilton puts a twist on it and has the killing botched. It was a good twist but the rest of the story didn't follow up on the promise. I never understood why Young felt the need to play along with Elizabeth Wilson, aside from her walking around in almost nothing and him being a red-blooded male, and without spoiling anything, I thought the ending was pretty far-fetched.

"But Dan," you say, "You gave it a three. What gives?" Hamilton's writing saved the day for me. The man new how to build suspense. While Elizabeth Wilson's character was fairly flat, Bunny and Doc Henshaw were pretty well done. Plus, he took a 50's plot involving communists and didn't make me laugh my ass off. Young wasn't a super hero and didn't walk around with guns blazing. That's was a huge plus.

Three stars but it could have easily been a 2 on a different day.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good murder mystery story published in 1954, so it used the Commie Spy & McCarthy era paranoia as the main plot of the story. Some coincidence is used, but more sparingly than I thought at first. The ending was good, too. It's a believable yarn with no super heroes, just ordinary people. I could really identify with the main character & understood the few others well, too. All motivations were quite believable. Well worth the read, although not as good as his Matt Helm books.


See this page:
http://homepage.mac.com/mmtz/dh/books...
for more of Hamilton's work, including biographies, stories & nonfiction articles. It's truly a fantastic collection.

[Roger · Rating 3 out of 5]

The action in The Night Walker takes place during The Red Scare. This novel has a real pulp-y feel to it. The author is Donald Hamilton, who created the Matt Helm series. (I am told by an aficionado that the books are infinitely better than the films with Dean Martin.) As for The Night Walker: it holds up pretty well for a book that is over six decades old, and there are some nice twists, but the basic premise totally destroys suspension of disbelief without even taking it to dinner first. I enjoyed this book for what it is-a scholcky but ultimately amusing diversion.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Night Walker' has that pulp feel about it from the early scenes of a hitchhiker wandering into a violent web of mistrust and deceit to the women who keep him there. A solid mystery shrouds the crime in a darkness which is not fully realised until the great unveil at the end of the novel (also true-to-form pulp). The one way traffic plot works well, largely due to the contained setting and limited cast but also to good old fashion honest writing. Harping about this novel being reminiscent of the gold age is interesting as it was written during said age in 1954 but maintains the test through time and is just as enjoyable now as it would've been upon its earlier publish date.

David Young plays the masked man well as he first succumbs to his situation (being set alight and beaten to a pulp only to dubbed as the man responsible for the crime) before resuming his former good guy self. Supported by Elizabeth and the women affectionately known as 'Red' - the ruse is given up and the bullets start to fly. I've got to say this one kept me guessing until the end. Not once did I finger the mastermind for who he/she was. Having read many of the Hardcase Crime books, I've got to say that this one may be a hidden gem amongst a rather solid bunch of books.

Entertaining, quick and pulp as its meant to be 3 stars.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hamilton takes this mysterious plot and plunges the reader headlong
through curve after curve till the readers head is spinning and
wondering who is on whose side and what could they have possibly
wanted with Young to begin with. Whose hands is he in and why?
The book is dark in mood. It never really feels as if the sun is shining.
The book does not seem dated even though there is some reference to
the communists. It is well-written and compelling reading. As is often
said in reviews, this was one I just couldn’t put down.
Although the idea of someone being wrapped in bandages and
mistaken for another is not new and has been used in various novels
and movies, it works here. It probably works because the
circumstances under which it happens are so mysterious and are
actually pre-planned by Wilson and not accidental.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

not bad overall – I like the many twists and turns, how when you think you have everything figured out, you realize how wrong you were a few pages later. it wasn't the most suspenseful book out there, but I like the twist and turns of the plot.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Months like this one make it tricky to continue my required monthly Hard Case Crime read. I usually skip February as HCC has done a poor job of publishing Black authors. And I’ve read all the female authors they’ve so far published (precious few). And now, reading only horror for these 31 days, I’ve read all their horror reads: the Stephen Kings and Sugar Rush.

But unlike February and March, I didn’t think this month required a departure from it. So I grabbed this one because the premise sounded horrific: a man is in a cab when he’s bashed in the head. He wakes up in a hospital to find his face swaddled in bandages. The nurse tending to him is referring to him by a different name. He has no ID, he’s supposed to be back at his naval base by a certain time, he’s in pain and petrified.

Also, the cover was evocative of a horror tale: the bandaged man screaming as a woman screams next to him while a gun goes off.

It starts as horror but quickly switches to thriller and is a lot of fun, even by HCC standards. I was invested in the story about halfway through, curious to see how Hamilton was going to bring it home.

Unfortunately, the back half is loaded with a lot of exposition that dulled the thrill of those first hundred pages. There are some interesting twists but I was happy when it was done. Still clears the 4-star bar because I really enjoyed those first hundred pages. And I’ll have to look into more of Donald Hamilton’s work.

[Alonzo Church · Rating 2 out of 5]

The one where the hero gets tangled up with another guy and wakes up with his identity stolen and everyone else telling him he’s the other guy. The good news that the other guy is pretty rich with a lovely wife who is just fine playing house with him. The bad news is that the other guy has a nosy tomboy girlfriend and he’s probably a Russian spy. How will our hero get out of this one with his virtue intact?

I think if Goodreads and me had both existed in the early 50s, this would have been a solid 3 maybe even 4. There are some decent plot twists and nobody is fully trustworthy. The problem is that the patina of age hasn’t helped. This is a very plot driven narrative and the characters are very colorless. This could be 1955 or 1975 and Maryland (teal locale) or California (It’s very TV movie) The PTSD subplot feels tacked on.

Very ordinary. Not worth the Hard Case Crime reprint.

[Juan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one of the Hard Case Crime bundle I bought, the mummy in the cover drew my attention. It started in a definitely non-noir way: a Navy lieutenant, in uniform, hitchhikes to a reluctant reincorporation. But then the driver hits the lieutenant, and he wakes up in a hospital, being called by the name of the driver that hits him.
The number of plot twists from then on is enough to subtract a star from the rating. It ends up being a bit difficult to follow, with all people involved, and even more so, without a clear resolution of all the loose ends. The background is totally unclear: there seems to be a Soviet spy ring, but neither what is exactly spying or why it is done that way it is clear.
It’s got a good entertainment value, anyway, and it’s original enough. Would definitely make a good movie, or even a TV series.

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: David Young
RATING: 4.25
WHY: After several years away from the military, Navy lieutenant David Young is called back to duty. He faces the assignment with great trepidation, having wavered at a time when he shouldn’t have. While hitchhiking, he is involved in an accident and wakes to find himself being called by another man’s name. Soon he is living this other man’s life, complete with wife and paramour. But he doesn’t really want to be anyone other than himself. He makes some surprising choices, and the explanation for all of the twists and turns of his new life turn out to be quite intriguing. Entertaining. Hamilton also wrote the Matt Helm books, but this is a standalone.

[Cal Brunsdon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Night Walker centres around a navy lieutenant who, while hitchhiking one night, is attacked. He wakes up in hospital, his face bandaged, as a different man. From there, the twists and turns begin.

I appreciated the writing here. It was sharp, to the point, and didn’t waste time fluffing about. The dialogue was primarily snappy and fun, (the lead love interest might have been written a little too “southern” and on the nose, however), but everyone had a strong voice and for a 250 page book with large font, that pleased me a great deal.

All in all, a bouncey little mystery with that classic 50’s crime noir flavour. Throw in a mistaken identity twist and I’d recommend this, (unless you don’t like naval talk).

[Rob Smith, Jr. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've found Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm books tough to read for me. Clunky and usually dancing around the plot by characters that are written nearly distracted as to why they are in the book. I was hoping this non-Matt Helm book to be different. It wasn't. I found the same.

Here's an example of a book too short. It was in need of a more involved narrative. A lot more background at the end and a less sloppy ending. Also woulda helped to back off the melodrama and stick to story elements. I can read where Hamilton was trying to build tension. He, to me, rakes territory he'd written earlier a few times.

Bottom line: I don't recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.

[Donald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Moral of the story - DON’T HITCHHIKE!

Elizabeth says “honey” way too much! So much that if you drank every time you read it, you’d be hammered long before chapter 8. It was extremely annoying. Also annoying - the many times she says, “I declare.” Seriously, who actually talks like her?

Basically, the bad guys try to substitute a hitchhiking Navy Lieutenant for another guy to cover up something that has to do with boats coming and going and things being couried. I honestly don't actually know what it was all about. Definitely not one of the better Hard Case Crime books, in my opinion.

[Mark Pasquini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up reading Matt Helm. Here is another adventure of the same type, except the hero is really an not a 'hero' in the Matt Helm sense of the word. It is set during the Korean War and the 'Red Scare' era. A naval officer, because of an incident in WWII, is reluctant to be recalled. Falls in with a nest of spies. This goes deeper into the mental workings of the characters than I remember from the Matt Helm books. Good beach read. Recommended.

[Michael Morrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Donald Hamilton got much better, as a stylist and as a story creator.
Still, this story does show what was possible, although there was too much coincidence, and far too much of the villain's exposition.
It's worth reading, though, both to see Hamilton's early work and to get a vague idea of how the world was operating at the time.

[Leif · Rating 4 out of 5]

People who speak in unequivocal statements annoy me. That is about the only thing I didn't care for in this fun spy(ish) novel.

I've read a few of Hard Case Crime's reprints, and although I generally enjoy them, this is one of the few I found to be a genuine "page-turner".

Better than 3 stars, perhaps a little less than 4.

[Nicholas George · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the kind of taut, hardboiled thriller that could only have been written in the late Forties or early Fifties, a twisty tale of espionage, murder, fake identities, and other deceptions. All the characters are jaded and bitter. There is a bit too much talk and too little action, but it's a quick diversion.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a quick, fun read. No deep thinking, with a couple of mysteries tied into an espionage story. Could have been a great De Palma film.

I feel like it these HCC books are screaming out for an introductory note about either the author or where the story first appeared. While HCC has some good covers, this one is weak. They should be hiring Dave Dorman to do some covers.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book at Dollar Tree when everything still was $1.00. I was intrigued and fascinated by the cover illustration. This book was a pretty quick read, but well-written. It's clean, probably because it was originally published in 1954. I recommend it if you like to read non-cozy mystery.

[Eric C · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Meh?” It started off great then spoiled it with too much exposition by too many characters with too many changing motives or agendas. Young and Red were the better characters. There were some cool moments, but, for the most part, it was “so-so”. My first DH book. It won’t be my last.

[Kyle Vernier · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the first Matt Helm book, Death of a Citizen, which seems to be universally loved by paperback crime readers, and didn’t like it. So I thought that maybe I’d like Donald Hamilton’s stand-alone work better. Nope.

[Rahul Gupta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent attempt but not a good read.

[Bjorn · Rating 2 out of 5]

**1/2

[Stephen J. Golds · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay little mystery story. Nothing that’s going to knock your head back but readable and relatively enjoyable.
3.5 an okay read. I’d read something else first if you’ve got it. But it’s not bad.

[John Culuris]

Review to come.

[Nathan Crowder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the fluff (for noir anyway). Easy light reading with believable dialogue. A setting in “red scare” times was novel and intriguing, for me personally.

[Du · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally old school thriller, which is exactly what I was seeking. There is a cheeky feel to it and a basic vibe at times, but it is fun B movie stuff.

[Cody Rodgers · Rating 3 out of 5]

3

[John Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing very special.

[Art the Turtle of Amazing Girth · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.92


Solid enough, a twist I did not see coming,
I love these hard boiled gems