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Matt Helm #5
Matt Helm: Murderers' Row
The department is concerned about Matt Helm. Having been given a distasteful assignment—assaulting a fellow agent in order to establish her cover in a top-secret operation—the woman is now dead. Alone in Chesapeake Bay, and pursued by his own government, Helm must complete the dead agent’s assignment and assassinate an enemy operative. Unless his employers get to him first...
PRAISE FOR DONALD HAMILTON
"Donald Hamilton has brought to the spy novel the authentic hard realism of Dashiell Hammett; and his stories are as compelling, and probably as close to the sordid truth of espionage, as any now being told." —New York Times
“Helm is about as credible a figure as one can find in the espionage genre.” —The New Republic
“Helm is a genuinely tough and tough-minded protagonist… your reading diet lacks essential vitamins if you overlook him.” —New York Times
“The appearance of a new Matt Helm story is always good news.” —Chicago Tribune
“This series by Donald Hamilton is the top-ranking American secret agent fare, with its intelligent protagonist and an author who consistently writes in high style. Good writing, slick plotting and stimulating characters, all tartly flavored with wit” —Book Week
“With Matt Helm, Donald Hamilton helped start the spy adventure genre. I welcome the reissue of these books so that readers can experience this mythic hero." —David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of Murder as Fine Art
“Fast, tightly written, brutal, and very good…” —Milwaukee Journal
PRAISE FOR DONALD HAMILTON
"Donald Hamilton has brought to the spy novel the authentic hard realism of Dashiell Hammett; and his stories are as compelling, and probably as close to the sordid truth of espionage, as any now being told." —New York Times
“Helm is about as credible a figure as one can find in the espionage genre.” —The New Republic
“Helm is a genuinely tough and tough-minded protagonist… your reading diet lacks essential vitamins if you overlook him.” —New York Times
“The appearance of a new Matt Helm story is always good news.” —Chicago Tribune
“This series by Donald Hamilton is the top-ranking American secret agent fare, with its intelligent protagonist and an author who consistently writes in high style. Good writing, slick plotting and stimulating characters, all tartly flavored with wit” —Book Week
“With Matt Helm, Donald Hamilton helped start the spy adventure genre. I welcome the reissue of these books so that readers can experience this mythic hero." —David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of Murder as Fine Art
“Fast, tightly written, brutal, and very good…” —Milwaukee Journal
172 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 1962
33 people are currently reading
198 people want to read
About the author
Donald Hamilton
101 books107 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 - 30 of 43 reviews
July 31, 2011
In significant ways, I considered this book a cut above the Helm novels I've read before. (The previous one I'd read --and the only one since I was a kid-- was the series opener, Death of a Citizen; I read this one out of order because I doubted that Helm's character developed enough in the course of the series to make a difference, but that view may have been too prejudiced.)
Helm, of course, works for a super-secret U.S. spy agency (the title comes from the not inapt in-house nickname for its Washington DC address). The agency suspects that a clandestine ring smuggling people out of the U.S. is operating in the Chesapeake Bay area, where a U.S. scientist with crucial knowledge has gone missing. To protect his secrets, they've assigned a female agent to infiltrate the ring by posing as a disaffected drunk, with orders to rescue or murder the scientist --typically, they don't much care which. Helm's job is simply to administer a brutal beating to the woman (as a supposed "warning" from the agency) in a bugged motel room, to enhance her credibility with the shadowy operators of the ring. The plot thickens (naturally) when she inexplicably keels over dead a few minutes into the act.
As I noted in my review of the series opener, Helm isn't a very likeable protagonist. Hamilton casts him in many ways as a typical noir P.I., moved over into the espionage field; he's amoral, cynical, and insults/annoys people as a natural biological function like his heartbeat or breathing. He's not averse to taking out his frustration by hitting people (because "I felt like it"), and on two occasions he comes close to killing innocent people because he didn't try very hard to identify who they were. But to his credit, he's bothered by that fact when he realizes it; and before the book is over, Hamilton will give him the opportunity for a moral choice that lifts the novel into four-star territory. No spoilers; but suffice it to say that the author (and the character) surprised me --and in a good way!
The novel has other decided strengths, some of them usual for this series and for the author's work generally. There's no explicit sex (and in this case no implied sex, either); bad language is kept to a reasonable minimum, and the well-handled action violence isn't grisly and doesn't gratuitously take over the plot. Some excellently-drawn supporting characters, both good and bad, and a perfectly crafted ending add to the appeal. Hamilton uses a fair amount of nautical jargon; but as in other novels set or partly set at sea, landlubbers like me can get the meaning from the context, or let it slip overhead without missing much. The plot is rather straightforward and linear, in contrast to the author's usual tendency to build twisty, convoluted plots; but that isn't necessarily a weakness. What did strike me as weaknesses were Helm's investigating technique, if we can call it that (which consisted of hanging around rattling the cages of people whom he had no real reason to think would be connected with the ring at all, while hoping for a lead to drop into his lap), and the fact that the villains here were apparently auditioning for the America's Dumbest Criminals show. (Though they don't have a monopoly on stupidity; Helm tests a whiskey bottle for poison by "cautiously" :-) tasting it!) But these flaws didn't keep the book from being an enjoyable, light and quick read.
Helm, of course, works for a super-secret U.S. spy agency (the title comes from the not inapt in-house nickname for its Washington DC address). The agency suspects that a clandestine ring smuggling people out of the U.S. is operating in the Chesapeake Bay area, where a U.S. scientist with crucial knowledge has gone missing. To protect his secrets, they've assigned a female agent to infiltrate the ring by posing as a disaffected drunk, with orders to rescue or murder the scientist --typically, they don't much care which. Helm's job is simply to administer a brutal beating to the woman (as a supposed "warning" from the agency) in a bugged motel room, to enhance her credibility with the shadowy operators of the ring. The plot thickens (naturally) when she inexplicably keels over dead a few minutes into the act.
As I noted in my review of the series opener, Helm isn't a very likeable protagonist. Hamilton casts him in many ways as a typical noir P.I., moved over into the espionage field; he's amoral, cynical, and insults/annoys people as a natural biological function like his heartbeat or breathing. He's not averse to taking out his frustration by hitting people (because "I felt like it"), and on two occasions he comes close to killing innocent people because he didn't try very hard to identify who they were. But to his credit, he's bothered by that fact when he realizes it; and before the book is over, Hamilton will give him the opportunity for a moral choice that lifts the novel into four-star territory. No spoilers; but suffice it to say that the author (and the character) surprised me --and in a good way!
The novel has other decided strengths, some of them usual for this series and for the author's work generally. There's no explicit sex (and in this case no implied sex, either); bad language is kept to a reasonable minimum, and the well-handled action violence isn't grisly and doesn't gratuitously take over the plot. Some excellently-drawn supporting characters, both good and bad, and a perfectly crafted ending add to the appeal. Hamilton uses a fair amount of nautical jargon; but as in other novels set or partly set at sea, landlubbers like me can get the meaning from the context, or let it slip overhead without missing much. The plot is rather straightforward and linear, in contrast to the author's usual tendency to build twisty, convoluted plots; but that isn't necessarily a weakness. What did strike me as weaknesses were Helm's investigating technique, if we can call it that (which consisted of hanging around rattling the cages of people whom he had no real reason to think would be connected with the ring at all, while hoping for a lead to drop into his lap), and the fact that the villains here were apparently auditioning for the America's Dumbest Criminals show. (Though they don't have a monopoly on stupidity; Helm tests a whiskey bottle for poison by "cautiously" :-) tasting it!) But these flaws didn't keep the book from being an enjoyable, light and quick read.
March 24, 2012
Okay, some popcorn reading here. My first exposure to Matt Helm were those corny Dean Martin movies, unfortunately. I'd see the paperbacks around, but couldn't bring myself to reading one, thinking of those goofy movies. Then, while stationed on a remote tour in Alaska, in the barracks among the Mack Bolan, Rat Bastards, Nick Carter books left by others on base, I ended up reading The Vanishers and really enjoyed it. Since then I've enjoyed the random dip back into Helm's world, knowing I'm in for some violence, out-dated attitudes and ice-cold professionalism.
The Matt Helm of the novels is about as hard-boiled as a spy can get. Every decision, from murder to sex is articulated in a cold strategic fashion. At first Helm comes across as a bit of a cold-blooded bastard, which he is, but what keeps the character going is just the hint of self deprecating humor. Also, the spy gadgetry is kept to a minimum. Instead, Helm relies on a wrench, a pipe, a syringe, and a suicide pill kept "never mind where," to complete this mission, which is finding a kidnapped scientist holding the key to our submarine defense systems, if it matters. This one is as fun as any of the others you might come across, and since they're out of print now, worth grabbing when you see them.
The Matt Helm of the novels is about as hard-boiled as a spy can get. Every decision, from murder to sex is articulated in a cold strategic fashion. At first Helm comes across as a bit of a cold-blooded bastard, which he is, but what keeps the character going is just the hint of self deprecating humor. Also, the spy gadgetry is kept to a minimum. Instead, Helm relies on a wrench, a pipe, a syringe, and a suicide pill kept "never mind where," to complete this mission, which is finding a kidnapped scientist holding the key to our submarine defense systems, if it matters. This one is as fun as any of the others you might come across, and since they're out of print now, worth grabbing when you see them.
April 27, 2018
I didn't notice any OCR like the last book, so that was a big plus. I hope all the rest of the Helm fans are buying these, too. Not only are your old paperbacks wearing out, but by keeping this run going, we're closing in on FINALLY getting to read the last, previously unpublished book.
I remembered the story very well, of course. I've probably read it a dozen times. Still an excellent one.
One of the coolest things about Hamilton's writing is that he doesn't mind making his tough operative human & occasionally foolish. Helm is both in this, although he manages the assignment pretty well. I especially liked the last chapter or two. The fight scenes are so very realistic & yet understated.
I remembered the story very well, of course. I've probably read it a dozen times. Still an excellent one.
One of the coolest things about Hamilton's writing is that he doesn't mind making his tough operative human & occasionally foolish. Helm is both in this, although he manages the assignment pretty well. I especially liked the last chapter or two. The fight scenes are so very realistic & yet understated.
August 16, 2015
Good on Titan Books for reissuing this entire series of books, but the team left in charge of their design need to be fired and never allowed anywhere near graphic design packages ever again. THESE BOOKS ARE FUGLY! And really cheap knockoff's of Lee Child books to boot.
I've said it before but Matt Helm is what Jack Reacher wants to be when he grows up, Donald Hamilton has given us a combination of Parker and Bond in 27 neat and often formulaic packages, tight little reads filled with outdated attitudes, violence, sex, spy games with the minimum of fuss or jargon and written with the skill to make you flip those pages faster as you wonder just what trouble our hero is going to find himself in next.
It's silly, but it's fun and Murderer's Row is a high quality example thanks to the avoidance of much of the cliche formula that permeates later entries in the series.
I've said it before but Matt Helm is what Jack Reacher wants to be when he grows up, Donald Hamilton has given us a combination of Parker and Bond in 27 neat and often formulaic packages, tight little reads filled with outdated attitudes, violence, sex, spy games with the minimum of fuss or jargon and written with the skill to make you flip those pages faster as you wonder just what trouble our hero is going to find himself in next.
It's silly, but it's fun and Murderer's Row is a high quality example thanks to the avoidance of much of the cliche formula that permeates later entries in the series.
September 12, 2015
Well we finally got here. Matt's "agency" has decided that maybe he's a bit over stressed. Maybe killing is getting a little too easy. Maybe he's killed so often that life has become...expendable.
The term PTSD wasn't around yet but it seems that maybe Matt has killed someone "by accident" he was just supposed to rough up and then he shot someone that maybe he could have just disarmed. The powers that be are thinking maybe he should have...a rest.
However, Matt disagrees...vehemently.
Of course if he didn't we wouldn't have a novel.
Most people who've even heard of Matt Helm at best compare him to James Bond...and at worst recall the old (comedy) movies and (pathetic) TV series.
Not so. First while Matt does not lack for female company he's a step above Bond in the realism department. Our laconic hero is a no nonsense agent who takes his job straight (along with his drink) and spends most of his life (now) alone.
I recommend these. If you like thrillers I'd suggest you look them up and try them, really. Enjoy.
The term PTSD wasn't around yet but it seems that maybe Matt has killed someone "by accident" he was just supposed to rough up and then he shot someone that maybe he could have just disarmed. The powers that be are thinking maybe he should have...a rest.
However, Matt disagrees...vehemently.
Of course if he didn't we wouldn't have a novel.
Most people who've even heard of Matt Helm at best compare him to James Bond...and at worst recall the old (comedy) movies and (pathetic) TV series.
Not so. First while Matt does not lack for female company he's a step above Bond in the realism department. Our laconic hero is a no nonsense agent who takes his job straight (along with his drink) and spends most of his life (now) alone.
I recommend these. If you like thrillers I'd suggest you look them up and try them, really. Enjoy.
July 20, 2015
Not every book fares as well when read aloud. Like OSC's books, Hamilton's writing is clear, concise & does very well in this medium. Rudnicki did a great job getting the intonations correct. It made the brutality of the assignment very clear & makes the moral ambiguity that much worse. The degradation of playing some roles is awful, perhaps worse than murder.
For more details of the story, see my review of the paperback here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
For more details of the story, see my review of the paperback here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
October 23, 2014
A brutal assignment, giving a realistic beating to a female agent so that she can infiltrate a spy ring, starts this novel. No gory details about the beating, just a description of the sacrifice both agents are making in the name of serving their country. The lengths they will go to are shocking, but very realistic. Accidents happen & Helm's mental health is called into question. Is he getting a superman complex? Does he value human life any more?
Helm winds up stalking the enemy spy ring in his own way in the Chesapeake Bay area. Again, his descriptions of the area are perfect. In one instance he describes the problems of getting through some underbrush, correctly identifying honeysuckle & wild rose (multifloral rose) as two of the major obstacles. He should know. He spent quite a bit of time in the area & it shows.
Helm winds up on an 80' sail boat, about which he knows very little, at this point in his career. That might be a bit overdone. Hamilton's knowledge of sailing is extensive. He wrote a book Cruises with Kathleen, a nonfiction book about living on his own sailboat. Helm becomes more familiar with boats as the series progresses, but is never shown as an expert. Very well done in under 200 pages. It's amazing how much story & information Hamilton can pack into those few words.
See these pages for more of Hamilton's work, about him, & the latest releases.
http://www.matthelmbooks.com/intro.html
http://www.benish-industries.com/hami...
http://goodreadergonebad.net/donaldha...
Helm winds up stalking the enemy spy ring in his own way in the Chesapeake Bay area. Again, his descriptions of the area are perfect. In one instance he describes the problems of getting through some underbrush, correctly identifying honeysuckle & wild rose (multifloral rose) as two of the major obstacles. He should know. He spent quite a bit of time in the area & it shows.
Helm winds up on an 80' sail boat, about which he knows very little, at this point in his career. That might be a bit overdone. Hamilton's knowledge of sailing is extensive. He wrote a book Cruises with Kathleen, a nonfiction book about living on his own sailboat. Helm becomes more familiar with boats as the series progresses, but is never shown as an expert. Very well done in under 200 pages. It's amazing how much story & information Hamilton can pack into those few words.
See these pages for more of Hamilton's work, about him, & the latest releases.
http://www.matthelmbooks.com/intro.html
http://www.benish-industries.com/hami...
http://goodreadergonebad.net/donaldha...
October 26, 2013
A fun, quick read - pure entertainment, but not junk. The dialogue is clever and funny, the character is an amusing asshole, everybody else is a bit despicable, and the pace is a perfectly planned breakneck hurtle. I'll be on the lookout for more Matt Helm.
November 19, 2023
Another great book in the series!
June 9, 2020
The ghost of Thomas Hobbes visited me and asked what I was reading. I handed him this novel and he read it in one sitting.
“What did you think?” I asked when he finished.
“It was nasty, brutish and short. Got any more?”
“What did you think?” I asked when he finished.
“It was nasty, brutish and short. Got any more?”
March 6, 2011
Love the MATT HELM series. Yes, it's dated, but still a blast. Each is well written, and thoroughly enjoyable. Great beach reads if you can find copies!
May 25, 2014
MURDERERS' ROW is a treat for Matt Helm fans.
Yes, Helm uses himself as bait in MURDERERS' ROW, allowing himself to be captured by the opposition, for a total series count of 5 for 5. Since Matt does this in every novel (except the first one, twice in the third novel), this information cannot possibly spoil anything, because We Expect It!
@hg47
Yes, Helm uses himself as bait in MURDERERS' ROW, allowing himself to be captured by the opposition, for a total series count of 5 for 5. Since Matt does this in every novel (except the first one, twice in the third novel), this information cannot possibly spoil anything, because We Expect It!
@hg47
July 14, 2017
“Murderer’s Row” is the fifth book in the Matt Helm espionage series by Donald Hamilton. The title refers to the building in which Helm’s unnamed organization is allegedly based, a building which plays no role in the story. This story, typical of the Helm series, does not feature fancy gadgets, supersonic cars, or laser emitting satellites. Rather, it is a far more realistic, gritty, down-to-earth series than the British spy series which was popular at the time that this was originally released. Helm has a seemingly simple mission of preparing a fellow agent for a sea-voyage on which she will seek to prevent secrets from falling into the hands of the enemy. However, it is generally never that simple and with bodies collapsing around him, psychological tests, arrests by local officials, and questions being raised about his mental competence, Helm follows what leads he has into a hive of espionage activity. The plot features Helm masquerading as a mob hitman and a perilous voyage in a yacht in hurricane waters. Helm’s sardonic sense of humor is evident throughout and it is a solid, must-read. Although the adventure does not take the reader into exotic climes (unless you consider the waters of Chesapeake Bay to be exotic), the gritty reality of trust/distrust and cross/doublecross and, of course, right cross fills this book with lots of intrigue and action.
September 10, 2009
Hamilton writes as the anti-Fleming; there are no exotic locations here, no over-the-top villains, and no derring-do. Matt Helm is more self aware than Bond and experiences doubts and admits mistakes (all the more so because this is told in first person).
Tightly plotted and well done, although the justification for the antagonist's actions (especially "why this person?") didn't make much sense.
Tightly plotted and well done, although the justification for the antagonist's actions (especially "why this person?") didn't make much sense.
November 2, 2009
Matt Helm made this book good to me, the rest of the book isnt as strong.
Its almost too generic pulp,not very subtle.
Its not the first book in the series so i cant judge the series really.
Its almost too generic pulp,not very subtle.
Its not the first book in the series so i cant judge the series really.
May 19, 2014
As good as Ian Fleming. Also reminds me of the Richard Stark books a little. No high tech just good old fashioned betrayal and violence.
Read
March 25, 2016Par for the Helm course... but this displays him at his vulnerable best.
May 31, 2024
This is not the Matt Helm you may have seen portrayed by Dean Martin in several goofy spy-spoofs. This Matt Helm is the original - and he's the polar opposite of the film-Helm, the original is tough as nails - easily on par with the early James Bond. Hamilton tells his stories in the first-person narrative - and I very much enjoyed being along for the ride in Matt Helm's mind. He has a sharp mind, he's acerbic, he fights (and fights well) when he has to, he knows his weapons, likes his women - but none of it feels cheap - he's a character and yes, let's remember that he's a character written in 1960. So he's not exactly politically correct - and there are more than a few moments when what he says and does makes you smile.
This Matt Helm novels is a bit of a curious one - Helm is on edge, makes a few jumpy choices and both his employer and he himself think that maybe he's too close to the edge, maybe it's time to quit. Then he's asked by two parties to murder a wealthy woman (he doesn't, of course) - but it gets him closer to his mission and that wealth woman seems connected to it. It feels like much of this short novel takes place on a huge yacht where, for a lot of it, he's locked up in a cabin where more and more stormy weather shakes up the yacht. And, of course, things go down - Matt Helm does what's he's come to do, delivers the goods, saves the day - and brutally beats his opponents and kills a few in the process. Once again, I'm reminded just how much Matt Helm is like Jack Reacher. Both are methodical, both are brutal when it comes to it, both kill without hesitation if need be - except that Matt officially has license to kill.
This Matt Helm novels is a bit of a curious one - Helm is on edge, makes a few jumpy choices and both his employer and he himself think that maybe he's too close to the edge, maybe it's time to quit. Then he's asked by two parties to murder a wealthy woman (he doesn't, of course) - but it gets him closer to his mission and that wealth woman seems connected to it. It feels like much of this short novel takes place on a huge yacht where, for a lot of it, he's locked up in a cabin where more and more stormy weather shakes up the yacht. And, of course, things go down - Matt Helm does what's he's come to do, delivers the goods, saves the day - and brutally beats his opponents and kills a few in the process. Once again, I'm reminded just how much Matt Helm is like Jack Reacher. Both are methodical, both are brutal when it comes to it, both kill without hesitation if need be - except that Matt officially has license to kill.
January 11, 2024
A brilliant scientist is missing. Helm is on leave, but is called to Washington and assigned to rough up Jean, another operative, whose assignment is to infiltrate the group who are suspected to have taken him. Her assignment was to rescue or silence the scientist. Unfortunately, Jean dies at Helm’s hands. He is arrested for the murder but the other guests at the hotel say he is not the suspect. Helm is ordered to return to Washington. It is believed he needs treatment.
Helm refuses. He returns to the hotel and is approached by Teddie Michaelis, the young daughter of the missing, presumed dead, scientist. She hires him to kill Robin Roston, a socialite with a grudge against the US. Helm is also hired by Teddie Roston to do the same exact execution.
Eventually, Helm and Teddie are kidnapped by Robin, who has the scientist hidden away. They are held on a large yacht which is to meet a freighter which will deliver the scientist to the enemy. Helm must decide whether to kill him in front of the man’s daughter. He decides not to force the pill down the scientist’s throat.
Once Michaelis is aboard Robin sets the schooner to sea in the face of a budding hurricane. Helm must somehow come up with a plan of escape. Robin’s bodyguards, Lefler and Nick are both larger than Helm.
Helm refuses. He returns to the hotel and is approached by Teddie Michaelis, the young daughter of the missing, presumed dead, scientist. She hires him to kill Robin Roston, a socialite with a grudge against the US. Helm is also hired by Teddie Roston to do the same exact execution.
Eventually, Helm and Teddie are kidnapped by Robin, who has the scientist hidden away. They are held on a large yacht which is to meet a freighter which will deliver the scientist to the enemy. Helm must decide whether to kill him in front of the man’s daughter. He decides not to force the pill down the scientist’s throat.
Once Michaelis is aboard Robin sets the schooner to sea in the face of a budding hurricane. Helm must somehow come up with a plan of escape. Robin’s bodyguards, Lefler and Nick are both larger than Helm.
July 24, 2021
Might be a 4.5 but its near perfect. Helm is a great hard nosed character that does have a heart but it doesn't always come thru as fast as you would think. When a female agent, that he was supposed to rough up as part of her cover, dies instead he ends up taking over his assignment. But since he had no contacts or ways in he just blunders around til something comes down on him and figure he will figure it out as he goes.
Highly recommended as is all the Helm books.
Highly recommended as is all the Helm books.
August 7, 2023
Matt Helm books are always fun, but this one really excels. Helm has to pose as a Chicago hitman and beat up a female agent for a case. Only - she dies. And now everything has gone wrong, and he has to try to salvage the mission. The next problem is that a couple of people believe his cover as a hitman... and want to hire him to kill someone. The same someone. Just when Helm thinks things can't get worse... well, I'm sure you've guessed. Brilliant.
April 30, 2018
This isn't much of a thriller if you ask me, and
he's working for a super secret spy agency but
the story devolves into a sort of murder-for-hire
farce.
Even the ending in a hurricane is pretty dullsville.
Still, I enjoyed it for its limited entertainment
value. Just would not necessarily recommend
it to anyone as a delicious read.
he's working for a super secret spy agency but
the story devolves into a sort of murder-for-hire
farce.
Even the ending in a hurricane is pretty dullsville.
Still, I enjoyed it for its limited entertainment
value. Just would not necessarily recommend
it to anyone as a delicious read.
January 23, 2025
In typical Hamilton fashion, the action in Murderer’s Row, starts out slow, but gradually picks up speed during the course of the novel, until it comes to a crashing finale.
Communist spies are trying to kidnap an American Scientist. Helm has to stop him from getting into the enemy’s hands, even if it means killing him.
Communist spies are trying to kidnap an American Scientist. Helm has to stop him from getting into the enemy’s hands, even if it means killing him.
January 19, 2019
Lucky guy
So sometimes even a guy like Matt Helm gets lucky. I'm this case, to succeed at his mission, not in terms of the ladies. Nice couple of twists in this one, and an interesting character or two.
So sometimes even a guy like Matt Helm gets lucky. I'm this case, to succeed at his mission, not in terms of the ladies. Nice couple of twists in this one, and an interesting character or two.
January 29, 2023
This was an odd one. Begins with an extremely disturbing scenario: Matt Helm has to beat up a female colleague to establish her cover story, and she dies while he's hitting her. Then it segues into a farce where all the members of a nutty family hire him to kill each other.
November 28, 2017
I started reading the Matt Helm books way back in 1968 when stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas. Read through the whole series a couple of times since then. On my way through them for the third time.
January 10, 2018
So far, the best of the Matt Helm series.
January 19, 2019
6/10
226 pages
226 pages
October 4, 2019
This Helms story is ahead of its time in some ways. Chiefly, they portray a real problem of a government assassin not knowing how to stop killing.
April 17, 2020
A Secret Agent on the edge of burning out. This can lead to problems and does for our favourite assassin. But along the way he realizes it's not him but the job. Another successful mission.
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