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Matt Helm #21
The Infiltrators: The Matt Helm Series, Book 21
Beautiful, intelligent, fresh out of prison—Madeleine Ellershaw is Matt Helm’s latest case. Madeleine may have been imprisoned as a spy, but Helm soon realizes that her story isn’t so simple. He’s got to figure out why she took the rap for her husband nine years ago, what secrets are hiding in her past, and, most difficult of keep her alive.
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First published June 1, 1984
39 people are currently reading
131 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 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 14, 2021
I don’t think I’ve read a Matt Helm since the ‘70s. I always considered Helm to be a US-centric substitute for James Bond. But The Infiltrators, which I just picked up from a clearance rack on something of a nostalgic lark, was much, much more than I remembered. Who would have thought that a book would be published in 1984 that would resonate so clearly with what the US is currently going through. Retired military officers going rogue? Conspirators insisting that they are saving the country from the sick decadence of the establishment bureaucrats? The idea that a coup is the only thing that can save the country because elections can’t be trusted? Stop me if any of this rings a bell!
To be sure, the plot in The Infiltrators isn’t quite the Q-Anon-laced Kool-Aid of today’s right-wing terrorists, but it is close enough. In fact, even though the title should have given me a clue about the conspiratorial aspects involved in this plot, I was so caught up (initially) in the idea of Helm providing escort duty for an obscure ex-con who claims her innocence but is presumed guilty—even by Matt’s mysterious boss, Mac. Yet, it was interesting how the inter-agency intrigue played out.
The Infiltrators is part suspense thriller and part mystery, but in between the action scenes (and there is plenty of action), there is plenty of humanizing dialogue on both sides of escort/bodyguard and the “objective” to be escorted. The objective provides plenty of passive-aggressive resistance to Helm’s good intentions. Psychologically, it feels about right (at least, for those of us who haven’t had our lives uprooted and been thrown into a maximum-security prison for nearly a decade).
There are also the little touches that I liked. Unlike James Bond, Helm doesn’t just get to fight his way through wounds, and unlike the British agent, Helm doesn’t get to immediately avoid harm’s way when his intuition goes off. And, although there is an erotic component (the descriptions aren’t explicit, but the sexual involvement is part of the plot and it’s foreshadowed enough that it shouldn’t be a spoiler to mention it), it doesn’t seem like every female feels the need to copulate with Helm like they seem to with Bond. Helm’s back-up seem both more competent and less competent than Bond’s, and that offers verisimilitude, as well. Finally, there is more than one scene where a character is unexpectedly competent. I’m happy to say that Donald Hamilton sets the stage for those scenes, as well.
In short, this wasn’t your Dean Martin film version of Matt Helm. That’s good because all four of those films were more spy-spoofs than filmed thrillers. I guess that’s why I didn’t see those films in the theater and I only bothered to watch one on television. I know this: if I had read The Infiltrators and then seen one of the Martin films, I would never touch another Donald Hamilton book again. As it is, I’m thinking Matt Helm deserves additional attention when I get in the kind of escapist mood I was in when I picked this one up.
To be sure, the plot in The Infiltrators isn’t quite the Q-Anon-laced Kool-Aid of today’s right-wing terrorists, but it is close enough. In fact, even though the title should have given me a clue about the conspiratorial aspects involved in this plot, I was so caught up (initially) in the idea of Helm providing escort duty for an obscure ex-con who claims her innocence but is presumed guilty—even by Matt’s mysterious boss, Mac. Yet, it was interesting how the inter-agency intrigue played out.
The Infiltrators is part suspense thriller and part mystery, but in between the action scenes (and there is plenty of action), there is plenty of humanizing dialogue on both sides of escort/bodyguard and the “objective” to be escorted. The objective provides plenty of passive-aggressive resistance to Helm’s good intentions. Psychologically, it feels about right (at least, for those of us who haven’t had our lives uprooted and been thrown into a maximum-security prison for nearly a decade).
There are also the little touches that I liked. Unlike James Bond, Helm doesn’t just get to fight his way through wounds, and unlike the British agent, Helm doesn’t get to immediately avoid harm’s way when his intuition goes off. And, although there is an erotic component (the descriptions aren’t explicit, but the sexual involvement is part of the plot and it’s foreshadowed enough that it shouldn’t be a spoiler to mention it), it doesn’t seem like every female feels the need to copulate with Helm like they seem to with Bond. Helm’s back-up seem both more competent and less competent than Bond’s, and that offers verisimilitude, as well. Finally, there is more than one scene where a character is unexpectedly competent. I’m happy to say that Donald Hamilton sets the stage for those scenes, as well.
In short, this wasn’t your Dean Martin film version of Matt Helm. That’s good because all four of those films were more spy-spoofs than filmed thrillers. I guess that’s why I didn’t see those films in the theater and I only bothered to watch one on television. I know this: if I had read The Infiltrators and then seen one of the Martin films, I would never touch another Donald Hamilton book again. As it is, I’m thinking Matt Helm deserves additional attention when I get in the kind of escapist mood I was in when I picked this one up.
December 24, 2024
Matt Helm at his gritty best.
There is the tragic dame, the nefarious plot, and all the usual gratuitous violence and snappy dialog that one expects from the series.
The plot is a bit of a stretch, but most Helm plots push the bounds of possibility.
The series is dated (but this book was published 40 years ago, so you have to expect that), but still a fun read.
If you're reading Book #21 of a series, I would expect that you know what you're getting, and you'll get it good and hard here.
There is the tragic dame, the nefarious plot, and all the usual gratuitous violence and snappy dialog that one expects from the series.
The plot is a bit of a stretch, but most Helm plots push the bounds of possibility.
The series is dated (but this book was published 40 years ago, so you have to expect that), but still a fun read.
If you're reading Book #21 of a series, I would expect that you know what you're getting, and you'll get it good and hard here.
January 9, 2020
The Infiltrators is the 21st of the 27 books in Hamilton's terrific Matt Helm series. Helm, if you are unfamiliar with the series, is a tough no-nonsense spy series about a man who becomes involved in a secret
spy agency. This is a series that does not feature killer satellites, fancy Monaco casinos, and deadly weapons. It is a far more realistic series featuring hand-to-hand combat and how separate the secret spy world is from ordinary square life. In fact, early in the series, when Helm's
family is at stake an his wife realizes the cold-blooded killing machine she married, that relationship ends in tatters. Most of these books have cross-country chases, secret rendezvouses, and guesses at to
who is really on whose side. Each book, however, has a somewhat different feel to it from Central American jungles to old western ranches to Canadian wilderness.
Infiltrators offers an intimate portrait of what it means to be a professional middle-class person, successful as a lawyer, and suddenly have all that ripped from you and thrown into federal prison as a Russian spy for eight years. Helm meets what's left of this poor woman as she exits prison and, in a sense, brings her back to life as he protects her from people who want her permanently silenced before she can dig up clues as to what really happened. While there are blazing gun battles and highway chases, a lot of the book is the psychological portrait of this woman as she comes to terms with how the world perceives her and her back-and-forth with Helm.
Hamilton, as always, is a consummate professional writer and the book is a pleasure to read. Highly recommended.
spy agency. This is a series that does not feature killer satellites, fancy Monaco casinos, and deadly weapons. It is a far more realistic series featuring hand-to-hand combat and how separate the secret spy world is from ordinary square life. In fact, early in the series, when Helm's
family is at stake an his wife realizes the cold-blooded killing machine she married, that relationship ends in tatters. Most of these books have cross-country chases, secret rendezvouses, and guesses at to
who is really on whose side. Each book, however, has a somewhat different feel to it from Central American jungles to old western ranches to Canadian wilderness.
Infiltrators offers an intimate portrait of what it means to be a professional middle-class person, successful as a lawyer, and suddenly have all that ripped from you and thrown into federal prison as a Russian spy for eight years. Helm meets what's left of this poor woman as she exits prison and, in a sense, brings her back to life as he protects her from people who want her permanently silenced before she can dig up clues as to what really happened. While there are blazing gun battles and highway chases, a lot of the book is the psychological portrait of this woman as she comes to terms with how the world perceives her and her back-and-forth with Helm.
Hamilton, as always, is a consummate professional writer and the book is a pleasure to read. Highly recommended.
November 28, 2022
What a nice surprise that the audio copy of this is by my favorite narrator! If it's Stefan Rudnicki, the Golden Voice, you're pretty much guaranteed -- it's worth listening. I fell in love with him while listening to all the Quarry books he's done.
This book is oddly my first Matt Helm. Well, as a kid, I know I saw Dean Martin's version of Matt Helm. This could be why I hadn't "read" any of Donald Hamilton's series about one of America's top spies. Matt Helm was just a little ahead of my time, plus, I was too busy with my career to catch onto this genre -- except for -- yes, blame the Brits and Sean Connery -- James Bond.
I'll probably read more MH, especially if it's Rudnicki voicing it my way. Some may find this MH #21 is a little slower moving than they'd like, a bit too much rehashing, but the subject is quite on target for what we've seen happen in real life the past decade.
This book is oddly my first Matt Helm. Well, as a kid, I know I saw Dean Martin's version of Matt Helm. This could be why I hadn't "read" any of Donald Hamilton's series about one of America's top spies. Matt Helm was just a little ahead of my time, plus, I was too busy with my career to catch onto this genre -- except for -- yes, blame the Brits and Sean Connery -- James Bond.
I'll probably read more MH, especially if it's Rudnicki voicing it my way. Some may find this MH #21 is a little slower moving than they'd like, a bit too much rehashing, but the subject is quite on target for what we've seen happen in real life the past decade.
January 25, 2023
Matt Helm always goes one better than James Bond. Always. Bond is tuxes and fast cars, Helm is jeans, boots, work jacket, and 4WD vehicles. Bond is tough as nails, mean, rotten and nasty and those are just his good qualities. And hes' the guy you want on your side, because he does believe there are things worth fighting for. He's a sharpshooter, and doesn't weigh down the story with a lot of technical crap like Tom Clancy.
In this story, Matt is sent to pick up a woman who is just being released from federal prison after being convicted of selling state secrets to Russian agents. He's supposed to escort her back to Santa Fe. A homecoming for both. But there are questions about her guilt or innocence, and Helm's ultra secret organization has received information that someone doesn't want her to get back to Santa Fe. His job is to keep her alive.
This is divided into two books, something unusual for Hamilton. Much of the entire book is about Mrs. Ellershaw (always great, normal names) rebuilding her psyche and self-image after eight years in a maximum security federal prison. There is more talking in here than normal. Like many of the great storytellers of yesterday, he's doing a slow build, but keeping enough action to not put you to sleep. Once the action gets going, though, it's rough and tumble and breakneck. It's one of the best Helm books I've read recently.
Highly recommended!
In this story, Matt is sent to pick up a woman who is just being released from federal prison after being convicted of selling state secrets to Russian agents. He's supposed to escort her back to Santa Fe. A homecoming for both. But there are questions about her guilt or innocence, and Helm's ultra secret organization has received information that someone doesn't want her to get back to Santa Fe. His job is to keep her alive.
This is divided into two books, something unusual for Hamilton. Much of the entire book is about Mrs. Ellershaw (always great, normal names) rebuilding her psyche and self-image after eight years in a maximum security federal prison. There is more talking in here than normal. Like many of the great storytellers of yesterday, he's doing a slow build, but keeping enough action to not put you to sleep. Once the action gets going, though, it's rough and tumble and breakneck. It's one of the best Helm books I've read recently.
Highly recommended!
October 17, 2025
In his long career, Matt Helm has faced many enemies: East Germans, Russians, Chinese, Cubans, government bureaucrats and Central American dictators. This time he’s facing evil Republicans who have infiltrated the government.
Matt Helm has been assigned to escort Madeleine Ellershaw after her nine years in prison for treason. There is news that there have been threats made against her.
The first 200 pages follows their attempts to avoid getting killed and Madeline recovering her mental equilibrium. But events catch up with them and Helm is shot with a high-powered rifle. He must convalesce for several months. In the meantime, for some strange reason, Madeleine is sent to the agency’s training and convalescent center known as “The Ranch” for pistol training.
When they meet up again, they travel to her own town of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The first thing they do is visit the law firm where she had once worked and who defended her in her trial. Her old boss admits that he failed her.
Things pick up speed as there as several more attempts on her life and people from her past are killed in brutal ways.
This is a longer story than the earlier ones. His relationship with Madeleine is well done. Her occasional whiny self-pity scenes are annoying.
Matt Helm has been assigned to escort Madeleine Ellershaw after her nine years in prison for treason. There is news that there have been threats made against her.
The first 200 pages follows their attempts to avoid getting killed and Madeline recovering her mental equilibrium. But events catch up with them and Helm is shot with a high-powered rifle. He must convalesce for several months. In the meantime, for some strange reason, Madeleine is sent to the agency’s training and convalescent center known as “The Ranch” for pistol training.
When they meet up again, they travel to her own town of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The first thing they do is visit the law firm where she had once worked and who defended her in her trial. Her old boss admits that he failed her.
Things pick up speed as there as several more attempts on her life and people from her past are killed in brutal ways.
This is a longer story than the earlier ones. His relationship with Madeleine is well done. Her occasional whiny self-pity scenes are annoying.
May 4, 2020
Actually am only through page 300 of 458, but one less pleasing aspect of this particular volume in the series is the length - it is too long. As with too many authors after some successes with shorter novels, they begin to philosophize, pontificate or just ramble or something.
In this type novel, I doubt many readers want to read through all that.
Another lengthy aspect in some is the lengthy, detailed description of all the "fight" scenes.
I find myself skipping over paragraphs in this book and similar ones.
His other books in the series are much more entertaining.
I will finish this one.
In this type novel, I doubt many readers want to read through all that.
Another lengthy aspect in some is the lengthy, detailed description of all the "fight" scenes.
I find myself skipping over paragraphs in this book and similar ones.
His other books in the series are much more entertaining.
I will finish this one.
April 10, 2019
Another fun Matt Helm adventure. If you have come this far in the series you already know the drill. As usual, the no nonsense super agent Matt Helm saves the day, or partly as the female companion has to save him and someone else actually deals with the head bad-guy. I certainly enjoyed it more than the last, though the flip/flopping female lead did get a bit tiresome imo. But if you have enjoyed the earlier books, you'll probably enjoy this one as well. Nearing the end of the series which is kind of sad to think I won't have any more Helm to read then.
July 28, 2021
Was Madelaine Elllershaw guilty of treason or was she framed by her devoted husband? Matt Helm is sent to protect her and find out the truth. The way to the truth was not without danger and has Matt again thinking of retiring to a 'normal' life especially when he was laid up in the hospital for getting shot trying to save Madelaine. I finished it in two days because it was riveting. Thankfully, there was not much gratuitous coarse language.
September 13, 2021
Matt Helm's latest job is to keep an ex-con alive - if possible. And to use her as a decoy to flush out whoever is trying to kill her - and find out *why* they want her dead. Hamilton's Matt Helm books are always good, but this one excels. Lots of action, plenty of plot twists, some very nice characters and just a thunderingly good read. One of the best in a series that already stands head and shoulders above most spy or action series.
May 17, 2020
Another strong installment in this series, although a little wordy. Good dialogue, lots of action. The Matt Helm character is well drawn and I find him to remain interesting through several books. There are some plot weaknesses, e..g. a body's location is revealed in a vision, but otherwise the story is interesting.
May 28, 2018
Read them all. It is no dean Martin
Read about history, read about the country, and read about how the world was before 1989. I hope we still have this ability to do this when need. Read them three times now
Read about history, read about the country, and read about how the world was before 1989. I hope we still have this ability to do this when need. Read them three times now
February 2, 2019
Some readers have said that they feel that Hamilton’s writing gets more cumbersome as the Matt Helm series progressed. I don’t feel that way at all with this book. Loved the story, loved the descriptive. I will read the next.
February 17, 2019
Homegrown intrigue
An interesting entry in the Helm series, as all the nastiness that Matt takes on is caused by good old Americans, without a foreign agent in sight. While the possible outcome of the nefarious deeds was sketchy at best, it still made for an interesting plot.
An interesting entry in the Helm series, as all the nastiness that Matt takes on is caused by good old Americans, without a foreign agent in sight. While the possible outcome of the nefarious deeds was sketchy at best, it still made for an interesting plot.
February 7, 2023
The Infiltrators.
Since I have bought the whole Helm series, it is nice reading them in order. The stories make more sense than they did when I would a book I found. I never read them in order until now. Hamilton really wrote good stories.
Since I have bought the whole Helm series, it is nice reading them in order. The stories make more sense than they did when I would a book I found. I never read them in order until now. Hamilton really wrote good stories.
June 20, 2017
Ok but slow
Lots of blah blah blah . Okay , but not my favorite type. Found myself just skimming over the excessive dialogue just to see how it ended.
Lots of blah blah blah . Okay , but not my favorite type. Found myself just skimming over the excessive dialogue just to see how it ended.
August 5, 2017
I think this is the best Matt Helm novel I've read. Much of the same action and personal outlook as other Helm stories but with more depth.
August 27, 2017
Book dominated by stilted, redundant dialogue.
July 26, 2013
This might be Matt Helm at his best,emotional, involved, and still keeping his eyes on what's important. It's also one of the more super hero type secret agent stories in the series. This is the first time that he actually was out to save the country, not just do a little part to keep things from getting out of hand. On the way he might just save a women he knew for a moment nearly ten years ago.
In a way this is the culmination of an idea that has been rattling around Hamilton's stories for that last,maybe, twelve book? It also answers a few questions for other books that we hadnt known enough about to ask.
Its the same tight writing, the same interesting locals, and of course the hunt that we all take our vicarious thrills from.
Good stuff and sadly there are only six more left for my re-read. I'll be sad and miss Helm when I'm done with that last book.
In a way this is the culmination of an idea that has been rattling around Hamilton's stories for that last,maybe, twelve book? It also answers a few questions for other books that we hadnt known enough about to ask.
Its the same tight writing, the same interesting locals, and of course the hunt that we all take our vicarious thrills from.
Good stuff and sadly there are only six more left for my re-read. I'll be sad and miss Helm when I'm done with that last book.
October 23, 2014
Another excellent story. Helm isn't quite as bulletproof in this one, but he's certainly tough. The story of what prison did to the woman is well done, too. As usual, there are quite a few twists & turns as the plot slowly winds up to a fever pitch. Very tough to put down for the last quarter or so.
Again, Hamilton brings in an element of ESP. It's not huge or too unbelievable nor does the story hinge on it, so it's an interesting little quirk. Kind of fun in all the cold logic that rules the rest of the book.
On to the next book, The Detonators!
Again, Hamilton brings in an element of ESP. It's not huge or too unbelievable nor does the story hinge on it, so it's an interesting little quirk. Kind of fun in all the cold logic that rules the rest of the book.
On to the next book, The Detonators!
November 3, 2018
The Infiltrators is much better than the last Matt Helm book, The Annihilators. This one is more like the earlier books. I have always been a big Matt Helm. I read the first 18 Matt Helm books back in the 70s and early 80s. I only recently rediscovered that Donald Hamilton wrote 9 more Matt Helm books. I'm enjoying rediscovering Matt Helm series.
April 27, 2016
More ambitious in scope and treatment than the previous one but intensely engrossing....
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews