The Shadowers

Matt Helm #7

by Donald Hamilton

A brand-new edition of the classic novel.

In order to foil a mass assassination plot, Matt Helm must undertake his most dangerous mission: matrimony. An agent like Helm might be a nice man to live with for a while, but he’s not the kind a woman would marry. Unless she has to. Unless it’s all part of maintaining an ingenious cover. The man whose daily bread is violence takes a most unlikely bride - just to make sure death doesn’t part them.

Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Espionage, Fiction, Action, Adventure, Crime

142 pages, paperback

First published January 1, 1964

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

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 5 out of 5]

An evil and dangerous man has a plan to kill a large number of leaders and important people, a mass assassination. So Matt Helm is forced into one of the most dangerous, the most threatening, the most deadly situations he faces in the entire series of books!

He has to get married.

Yes, a real marriage, legal and everything. Of course arrangements have been made to end the marriage once the job is over...

Another good addition to the Matt Helm library. Good breakneck action with an interesting plot and our "flesh and blood" type hero. I like the Helm books. It leads to a sort of mixed set of feelings. I mean I'm sorry I waited so long to read to read them. On the other hand I'm enjoying the series now so I don't have to wish I hadn't read them and could read them for the first time.

Okay so I'm a little weird.

Recommended, enjoy.

[Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note, June 10, 2020: I've just done some minor edits to a few parts of this review. which didn't change any of the assessment of the book.

Like some other reviewers, I wouldn't class this one as among the author's best works (even considering the limited number of them I've read). It has much in common with the other two entries in the Helms series I've read in recent years. My theory has usually been that these can be read out of order (I've read numbers 1, 5, and this one, 7), and generally speaking I think that's true; but in the case of this one, a familiarity with the earlier books would probably enhance the reading experience. Events in the previous book influence this one, and the tale opens with Helm on his way to identify the body of a major character from earlier books (who was mentioned in Murderers' Row, but offstage for the action), now killed in a car crash.

Here, Helm's assignment involves a major plot, set up by Soviet spymaster Emil Taussig, to pair a considerable number of key American governmental, military and scientific personnel with a shadow (hence the title) assigned to each one, with the duty of killing him/her whenever a general signal is given. Helm's mission (whether he chooses to accept it or not :-) ), is to temporarily marry one of the shadowed marks, a lady scientist, so as to stay close to her at all times. But the objective isn't just to protect her --it's to trap her shadow, so the latter can be tortured into revealing Taussig's whereabouts, so he can be killed to avert the bloodbath. (Helm's superiors have as much boundless faith in torture as a fountainhead of reliable information as the medieval witch-hunters and inquisitors, or Stalinist interrogators, did --a chillingly prophetic touch, for a book written in 1964, considering what we know of the proclivities of some officials in, at least, the second Bush administration, though the policies have since been officially disavowed.) But like all of Helm's missions, this won't be as simple as it sounds.

I've sometimes used the term "noir-influenced" to describe Hamilton's writing --though a recent e-mail exchange with a film noir fan has me wondering if I'm genuinely familiar enough, first-hand, with noir to assess its defining characteristics. But be that as it may, Helm is definitely drawn as similar to a lot of fictional gumshoes in the Hammett-Spillane tradition: cynical, amoral, abrasive, with enough of a chip on his shoulder to give it a callous. The demise of his marriage (following the series opener, Death of a Citizen) because of his wife's horror at learning what sort of man she'd married, has left him unable to view sex as anything but incidental physical gratification (and that's reflected in the book, though as usual the author refrains from explicit sex), and he gets opportunity here to spout his "end-justifies-the-means, anything-goes, conscience-is-a-weakness" philosophy. He doesn't always follow it, though, which makes him a more nuanced protagonist than he sounds. And this book made me realize, for the first time, through the deft small hints in the mostly stoic facade of his narrative voice, the degree of hurt and pain he actually carries and uses his abrasiveness to mask from others and himself (he not only lost his wife in the divorce, but his kids as well), and the fear of being the cause of hurt to others if he lets himself relate to them that cripples him in his human contacts. Compassion isn't an emotion he'd welcome, applied to himself --but he finally got it from me, here.

This can be a grim book; just because a character is likable and has no desire to harm anyone doesn't mean he/she won't end up brutally hurt and/or killed. There are some logical problems with plot points (though not as many as you might at first think --Hamilton does a great job of dovetailing them together after all in the big reveal). For a seasoned spy, Helm can do some really dumb things. I'm also skeptical of the degree to which professional spies can supposedly intuitively recognize each other or sense whether they're being tailed; if it were that easy, counter-espionage wouldn't be nearly as complicated as it actually is. We also have a revolver that we've seen to be unloaded when it was pocketed, but which has managed to magically reload itself when it's taken out again. (And what kind of idiot carries an unloaded gun for personal protection?) More importantly, I doubt that an adversary, even one that was distracted and then firing in a hurry, could shoot at Helm three times at that range without killing him. And morality aside, just from their own Machiavellian considerations, Taussig alive was too valuable a prize for Helm's bosses to waste by shooting him on a St. Louis street, when capturing him would have beheaded the plot just as effectively.

But those gripes don't detract from Hamilton's strengths: strong characterizations (good, evil, and in-between), riveting, cork-screw plotting which here keeps you guessing right up to the last minute (and includes at least one jaw-dropping surprise I did NOT see coming --though Hamilton hid the clues in plain sight!), and an ability to evoke emotions that hit you like a blow to the gut, and that deepen your capacity for human sympathy. If I see any more Helm novels I haven't read in the venues where I buy books, I'm going to grab them!

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

April2018 I liked this better this time through. There are maybe a dozen characters all told & they're very well done. Hamilton has a way of describing them & taking apart motives that is intriguing. This was quite twisty & often brutal, but never gory. Hamilton makes it clear that bad things happen, but he doesn't give overtly gross descriptions of sex or murder. There's no real cursing & yet the scenes are more chilling for the understated way they are portrayed. Great stuff. He's a real master of his craft.

July2015: This has never been one of my favorites in the series, but it came off better as an audio book. There were parts of that I'd didn't care for much before that Rudnicki brought into better focus or smoothed over with his reading.

Unfortunately, this is the last of the audio books at this time. I'm hoping they'll publish more soon & have written to the publisher to ask.

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh! Skip this one in the series. Very dated, very sexist - even for 1964. The plot wasn't that interesting, either.

[Tom Stamper · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 7th book in the Matt Helm series has him traveling to New Orleans and Pensacola trying to prevent an assassination attempt. Helm, of course, works as a government agent and his approach to the work is both patriotic and apolitical. Or maybe he isn't even patriotic but just good at his job. There isn't much self-reflection on the importance of his work and he waves off the praise he gets for doing it. We the readers get to enjoy his cold and calculating mechanizations while so much life hangs in the balance. Despite their age the books do not feel old fashioned. It would seem that such men are necessary and important to the security of nations and the approach and tactics to the work have probably not changed all that much. I would guess that the average agent's work is much more mundane and rudimentary compared to the action that Matt Helm experiences, but these are really enjoyable books. It's an underrated series that should be recognized as a cold war classic. Having lived in Pensacola for 10 years it's also entertaining to have the final confrontation in the historic Fort Pickens National park.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite in the series, but still a good book. Helm is married to a woman so he can protect her from assassination. As usual, he's given the barest of information & expected to fulfill his objective. The plot hinges on a misunderstanding that is very well plotted. The idea behind the story is a scary one & all too plausible. While still in the Cold War era, it strikes a special cord today.

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...

[Pop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, another great Matt Helm that will have you wondering what’s next for the man from “The Wrecking Crew”. Can’t wait myself.

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

During the James Bond craze in the ‘60s, some of the airmen from the nearby Air Force base introduced me to Matt Helm as more realistic than Bond. Although they may have known classified information regarding the space program (the base was our official Pacific Test Range), there is no way they could know what was realistic. However, Dean Martin movies notwithstanding, the Matt Helm novels had enough verisimilitude to seem more plausible, if not more realistic than the Bond novels. Yes, Fleming had a background in spycraft and, unless he picked some up in World War II or his brief postwar work as a chemist in the Naval Reserve, Hamilton didn’t. But Hamilton’s spy/assassin fiction just feels right.

The Shadowers is a Matt Helm thriller where the protagonist keeps making the rookie (or overconfident veteran) type of mistake in underestimating his opposition and surrendering his suspicions too easily. Of course, it’s easy from the viewpoint of the reader to see past the collateral noise, but it was surprising to see Helm do so. Ostensibly, Mac has assigned Helm to do bodyguard work for a female scientist involved in top secret research. This is ironic because the novel opens with a death Helm could feasibly have avoided. It gets even more ironic when an innocent takes collateral damage because Helm makes an incorrect assumption about his apparent antagonist’s motives.

The female scientist needs a bodyguard because she is being “shadowed” (hence the title of the novel) by operatives of what appears to be a significant espionage network. Helm’s organization is essentially using her as a “Judas goat,” tying her to Helm instead of a tree, to intercept an operative from this espionage network that would lead them back to the ultimate bad guy (one Taussig that Helm has bested previously, but managed to disappear in convenient fashion) when appropriate (or inappropriate) “creative” means of interrogation are applied.

You know what you’re getting in a Matt Helm: a smattering of sex (such that I had to hide the borrowed copies I read in high school lest my dad get suspicious), a need to save the world (standard Cold War fare), plenty of misdirection, and a modicum of violence. It’s entertaining escape literature, though. I’m realizing what I saw in those novels as a nerdy, high-school teen and nerdy college undergraduate, but I was still more engaged with the novel than with the average television show (and I never saw the brief series where Matt Helm became a private investigator—yucch!). You won’t find novels such as The Shadowers on the main shelves of bookstores or libraries, but if you find one cheap at a thrift store or library sale, they are well worth reading.

[ShanDizzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

“As a result,” Mac said, “in certain quarters Emil Taussig is no longer looked upon as merely a small, white-haired, Jewish gentleman with an ingenious mind; he is regarded as the devil himself. It is our job to exorcise him. We do not know many of the details of his operation. We do not know if his effort is an independent one, or if there will be concurrent action from overseas to take advantage of the confusion he hopes to create. We do not know,” Mac said, “and as far as you are concerned we do not care. Information is the business of other agencies. The only information in which you are interested is: Where is Emil Taussig?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
“You will find him,” Mac said, “using any means necessary. When you have found him, you will kill him. Any questions?”
“No, sir,” I said. I mean, he’d made it pretty clear.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

A shocking ending

[Len Appleby · Rating 1 out of 5]

[NOTE: this review was rejected by amazon.com for violating their Community Guidelines.]

‘The Shadowers’ is the seventh novel of the 27 in the ‘Matt Helm’ series. This Fawcett Gold Medal paperback edition was published in 1964.

The novel’s premise is that evil commie agent Emil Taussig has set up clandestine operatives – the ‘shadowers’ of the book’s title – to monitor selected U.S. scientists who are key personnel in efforts to pursue, and win, the Cold War. At a time of Taussig’s choosing, the shadowers will eliminate their targets and thus cripple the U.S.’s ability to resist Soviet hegemony.

Matt Helm, using the cover name Paul Corcoran, is assigned to guard Dr. Olivia Mariassy, a space scientist, and in so doing hopefully expose her shadower and eliminate him or her. To make his assignment believable, Helm poses as Mariassy’s new husband. As the novel’s 142 pages are perused, we learn that things are not what they seem, and Helm must carry out a desperate improvisation in order to fulfill his mission.

I always approach the Gold Medal novels cognizant of the fact that they were written by authors who wrote for a living, and thus, are not going to represent the carefully crafted works of (for example) Richard Price, Kem Nunn, Trevanian, or Thomas Harris.

However, even when read with forgiving standards, ‘The Shadowers’ is something of a dud. For one thing, over ninety percent of the book is comprised of dialogue passages, often lengthy, often stilted, which serve – in a labored way - as a vehicle to disclose plot developments. These passages give ‘The Shadowers’ the quality of something written for a static medium, such as a mid-60s stage play or television script.

The internal monologues are few, and adhere closely to the hard-boiled ethos:

'Braithewaite was leaving, taking with him the nurse and his tender conscience. I’d had one once, I remembered – a conscience, I mean – but I’d managed to lose it somewhere. At least I’d done my best to. In this business a conscience buts you nothing but trouble.'

Most of the plot revolves around the delicate maneuvering between purported newlyweds Helm and Olivia Massey, who, in terms of 1960s crime / suspense fiction, is a ‘frigid’ woman whose arch, severe demeanor needs only the deliberately crude attentions of a macho man like Helm in order to turn her into a Swell Dame. There are some surprise revelations in the novel’s closing pages, but in my opinion they fail to lend much energy to a novel that has little to start with.

Unless you are a diehard Matt Helm / Donald Hamilton fan, I can’t say this entry is worth searching out.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

1964 saw the release of book 7 in the Matt Helm series, a tough, battle-hardened spy assigned to a secret hit squad. In this novel, someone is shadowing American scientists and Helm is assigned to protect a female scientist. As his cover, he is to marry her. Unlike other Helm stories, however, it is not to be a phoney sham marriage, but the real thing, legal and consummated, so no one can suspect who he really is. The meat of this story is about Helm's interactions with his new wife, a rank amateur at this business, and his interactions with other amateurs that somehow get roped into it. At the forefront is Helm's suspicious nature and how he deals with each of the people he suspects could be working against him. There is a cat and mouse game with a vicious enemy and a final showdown. But, most of the book develops the relationships and suspicions rather than being an all-out action festival. This is as solid and hardboiled and cynical as a spy story can get. At his best, no one could write these stories better than Hamilton.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Secret Agent/Assassin Matt Helm is assigned to actually legally marry a mousey bespectacled government doctor/scientist in order to ferret out who her "Shadower" could be ... an enemy agent assigned to follow and watch and perhaps befriend before receiving the order to kill. There are Shadowers all over the US assigned to important government assets and Helm hopes to find just one and locate (through painful interrogation) where the 'brains' of this operation is hiding.

Love how these quick read potboilers set up the story and then twist and turn and reach a very violent conclusion mixed with the 60s sexism of the errant knight Helm. He is a brutal man, but there is heat in his heart under all the ice. This adventure has references and appearances by a couple of characters from a previous novel and those factors play an important part in fooling the reader into author Hamilton's smart winding plot.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

A plot is discovered to kill a number of important American citizens and an agent is assigned to protect one of the targets.

This book felt very dated and some of the plot points, especially towards the end, were too convenient or didn’t make sense.

Not a bad read but there are better spy thrillers around.

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great piece pulp. Matt Helm is the baddest spy going. Now if someone would just make a new Matt Helm movie, like Bond has finally been done. Raw and rough.

[RJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

The tale begins with Helm being police escorted to an accident scene. His girlfriend, Gail Hendricks sped around a curve, lost control, and crashed, being thrown from the convertible. By the time he got there, there was nothing to do but identify the body. Feeling morose, Helm called Mac asking if there was something he could do. Mac jumped on the offer and an hour later Helm was on an aircraft carrier off the eastern coast of Florida. Mac was waiting in a conference room with a rather plain-looking, stoic, young woman introduced as Dr. Olivia Mariatzi. Due to the nature of the mission, Helm was to protect Olivia as her husband. A man named Amil Taussig is establishing a group of agents who will, upon a signal, eliminate targets they have been following. This method was tried several years ago in Budapest and failed miserably, creating quite a stir. Now he plans to do it again here in Pensacola, Florida. Helm’s secondary mission is to find Taussig and kill him. So much for the setup of the story. Contrary to some reviewers, I think this is a very good story. Mariatzi’s character was especially dramatic and compelling. The depth of her character, the reasons for her actions, her affection for Helm, and the pain she carried inside her were real and raw. The closing minutes of the story are both a surprise and heart-breaking at the same time. Westlake carried off the ruse masterfully. Another complete surprise was the enemy agent. It’s an extra rare treat when an author can catch you completely by surprise. Simply brilliant!

[Phil Wujek · Rating 4 out of 5]

For this genre Donald Hamilton excels. Bear in mind that my other favorites are Bond and McGee, so Matt Helm as a character felt comfortable with me. The book flowed smoothly, and at the end there was a real roller coaster ending. More twists and turns than an Olympic Slalom run. That being said, let me get this off my chest. I am a fan of Dean Martin. Back in the 60s there were several films starring Dean Martin as Matt Helm. I watched them and found them fun, tongue firmly planted in cheek since at that time there were many parodies of the Bond type character. Then I read the books by Donald Hamilton, and was surprised at the grittiness of the stories. Love the books. Love Dean Martin as an actor and entertainer. Cannot believe that Donald Hamilton gave his okay on these films. I can only guess that the check was really good when he took it to the bank. Or is there a point where the work is no longer controlled by the author?

[John Reis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helm is on vacation with Grace Hendrix, when they have a fight, and she grabs the car and drives off. She is killed in a crash. As with all of the deaths of those around him, he is unmoved.

He is called back to guard a woman scientist named Olivia. There is evidence that a number of key scientists are being shadowed by foreign agents. He must stay close, so they are to marry. At their first meeting, they see a suspected foreign agent. Helm grabs a woman at the bar and leaves with her. He is rough with her, but he feeds her a nice dinner and takes her home. He learns that she is sexually assaulted.

She is later kidnapped, but Helm arrives too late to save her. The killer is a foreign agent, but he is not involved in the threat to American scientists. His mission is more personal.

Women have it rough when near Helm.

[Josh Hitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoy these, been reading them in order and all have been solid. This time Helm has to do the unthinkable and get married. He does this for his cover of protecting a lady scientist who is being shadowed by a killer. Helm has to protect her, grab the shadower, and make him talk about his boss who Helm is really after. Such a simple plan, but nothing in Helm's world is ever that simple.

Highly recommended, Hamilton is a great writer and the first person narrative style he uses is perfect. Helm doesnt play the superman, he knows his abilities and can think quick when he needs to. Nice to read a thriller where the main character doesnt just run in blasting like he is Rambo.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matt Helm is the real deal. He doesn't rely on gadgets, just sheer brains and grit! This time around, as part of a deep cover, he courts and marries a female scientist, (all undercover work on both their parts)... Their purpose, to draw out the leader of a group of assasins.

This is cold war spy stuff. Peripheral characters get involved (and hurt) and Helm suffers from guilt. Hamilton's Helm novels are always good, generally full of cross and doublecross, but the best part is that they aren't about stopping some HUGE threat to the world, but generally a serious threat, just not world ending.

I like Helm. A tough galoot compared to James Bond. But a real secret agent.

[Tim Deforest · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one rivals the Ambushers as the best of the Matt Helm series. Matt is assigned to marry a female scientist who has supposedly been targetted by foreign assassins. The idea is that Matt would be able to capture any hitman who goes after her and then find out from the prisoner where to find the guy heading up the assassination ring.

The last couple of chapters involve some of the best and most unexpected plot twists I've ever run across, with the identities of several characters and their motivations changing dramatically.

[Ted Barringer · Rating 3 out of 5]

As most reviewers have already reported - the Matt Helm series is seriously out-of-date. Matt Helm does things that no ordinary citizen would do, much less an experienced spy. The books are fun, I am working my way through the entire canon, if only because they take so little time to read. It you are looking for War & Peace, go elsewhere, if you are looking for James Bond, read James Bond, if you are looking for a "quickie" you can do worse than Matt Helm.

[John Peel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been several decades since I last read a Matt Helm novel, so I'd forgotten just how wonderfully well-written they are. In this outing, he's assigned to protect a female scientist by marrying her. But, as always, things are not what they seem, and everyone has secrets to keep. And there's a very brutal thug around, with murder on his mind. Absolutely brilliant fun.

[Brian Grouhel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matt Helm must get married and go undercover to protect the life of a scientist while using her as bait to draw out the perpetrator of a monstrous plan. Reading Donald Hamilton is better than watching television!

[David Makepeace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps the best Matt Helm novel yet.

[Micheal Segroves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Representative of its time. If you enjoy Ian Fleming, you'll love Donald Hamilton.

[Ralph Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining read as are all Matt Helm novels.

[Jack Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wrong target

An interesting twist on the usual conceit that a spy organization and/or one of its agents has correctly assessed a given situation. Nicely done.

[Fred Frey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much romantic melodrama - not enough action

[nigel milner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

James Bond step aside here comes a real tough agent. Non PC and very reminiscent of the cold War years . Recommended