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Matt Helm #17
Matt Helm - The Retaliators
Matt Helm is unexpectedly rich, and he doesn’t like it. Twenty thousand mysterious dollars appear in his bank account, but this is no time for celebration. Another secret agent with an unexplained surplus is murdered, and Helm figures he better work out who his “benefactor” is before he becomes the next target.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1976
19 people are currently reading
126 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 31 reviews
February 26, 2020
Quite a twisty mystery runs through this one. Matt does have the information he needs, no one is trustworthy, & his own government is out to get him, but has to do the job anyway. The various clues & motivations throughout were masterfully done. As usual, so were the guns. Not gun-porn, just tools of the trade properly used.
I really liked the theme of the book. Some folks are retaliators & Hamilton shows off a variety throughout. There's a scheming woman, a British mercenary, & Helm's coworkers. None of them take insult lightly & how they respond is interesting.
All these books are told in the first person & Rudnicki's voice is perfect as a narrator. Unfortunately, I'll now have to wait quite a while for any more.
I really liked the theme of the book. Some folks are retaliators & Hamilton shows off a variety throughout. There's a scheming woman, a British mercenary, & Helm's coworkers. None of them take insult lightly & how they respond is interesting.
All these books are told in the first person & Rudnicki's voice is perfect as a narrator. Unfortunately, I'll now have to wait quite a while for any more.
November 20, 2017
I just finished MATT HELM #17: THE RETALIATORS, a great installment in the series. This novel followed a string of tepid, over-long, and convoluted Helm installments apparently designed to showcase Donald Hamilton’s nautical knowledge. I’m thankful that the series found its legs again in THE RETALIATORS.
In this novel, MATT HELM and two assassin colleagues are on-the-run and suspected of treason after internal investigators discover large cash deposits into their bank accounts. The action quickly turns to Mexico where the seeds of the plot against Helm and his co-workers were planted. Many double-crosses and compelling characters surface. Blood flows. Matt gets laid.
This book was nominated for an Edgar award for Best Paperback Original. For my part, I’m glad he series is back on track. I look forward to the next one...
In this novel, MATT HELM and two assassin colleagues are on-the-run and suspected of treason after internal investigators discover large cash deposits into their bank accounts. The action quickly turns to Mexico where the seeds of the plot against Helm and his co-workers were planted. Many double-crosses and compelling characters surface. Blood flows. Matt gets laid.
This book was nominated for an Edgar award for Best Paperback Original. For my part, I’m glad he series is back on track. I look forward to the next one...
October 23, 2014
Another excellent story, full of action & confusion. It's not until the very last pages that Helm learns exactly what is going on. In the meantime, he's suspected by his own government & has several other groups to worry about too. The retaliator reference runs through the story line perfectly.
On to The Terrorizers!
On to The Terrorizers!
September 28, 2024
After two months at the Farm for recuperation, Helm goes to the bank to buy a new 4X4, only to find $20,000 in his bank account. He calls Mac and learns that two other agents have seen similar windfalls. The conversation is strained and filled with codes. BIS official Andrew Euler has determined these agents are traitors and is out to get them.
Helm’s assignment, despite being pursued, is to get to Mexico and protect a Mexican General from an assassination attempt by a German named Ehrneman. Helm meets Clarissa Ohern, the sister of ‘Roger’, one of the three. They learn he has been captured and killed by the BIS.
Clarissa’s loyalties come under question when Helm learns that her husband is on a fishing trip with the targeted Mexican General.
He makes contact with ‘Norma’, the third agent, in Baja.
He action picks up here. International figures are cooperating in an attempt to bring about a coup in Mexico, with the General at its head.
Helm is captured but later released to complete his assignment. He is betrayed several times by several parties. Shorter and less convoluted than the most recent entries in the series.
Helm’s assignment, despite being pursued, is to get to Mexico and protect a Mexican General from an assassination attempt by a German named Ehrneman. Helm meets Clarissa Ohern, the sister of ‘Roger’, one of the three. They learn he has been captured and killed by the BIS.
Clarissa’s loyalties come under question when Helm learns that her husband is on a fishing trip with the targeted Mexican General.
He makes contact with ‘Norma’, the third agent, in Baja.
He action picks up here. International figures are cooperating in an attempt to bring about a coup in Mexico, with the General at its head.
Helm is captured but later released to complete his assignment. He is betrayed several times by several parties. Shorter and less convoluted than the most recent entries in the series.
August 21, 2012
I started re-reading this series last summer, when I bought the first 16 at a library fair,for what I am sure was a great bargain. I'm not reading them on after another, I mix in all kinds of things. I do manage about one,sometimes two, a month.
I you're expecting James Bond you will disappointed. If your interested in tight, deadly action these are great reads. Mr Hamilton's Matt Helm is more cowboy then playboy and leads a violent life with no apologies.
This is one of the better stories with Helm not only having to deal with a master assassin,but also the fake morality of his own government, and the tricky diplomatic situation of making his "touch" on Mexican soil.
I'm getting to the point in the run where I dont always have the next one readily available,but when I find the next book it goes right on my reading pile.
I you're expecting James Bond you will disappointed. If your interested in tight, deadly action these are great reads. Mr Hamilton's Matt Helm is more cowboy then playboy and leads a violent life with no apologies.
This is one of the better stories with Helm not only having to deal with a master assassin,but also the fake morality of his own government, and the tricky diplomatic situation of making his "touch" on Mexican soil.
I'm getting to the point in the run where I dont always have the next one readily available,but when I find the next book it goes right on my reading pile.
February 23, 2012
It has been a long time since I read a Matt Helm book and I really enjoyed this one. Plenty of action, intrigue, and twists. You really don't get the whole story until the end. These are nothing like the movies and not as fantastical as the Bond stories, which I'm a fan of as well. One thing to keep in mind when reading these is when they were written. Helm is very much a product of his time. Still, I could easily see a nice modern action flick made based on this story that would be as good as any other today. Would be nice to see a new, less campy Matt Helm movie, not that I don't enjoy the Dean Martin movies for what they are.
October 3, 2007
the whole series is awesome, knock-off james bond, completely misogynistic
November 10, 2024
By the time of the 17th Matt Helm book it seems like Donald Hamilton was starting to run out of ideas for for his long-running series. "The Retaliators" features one of the weaker Matt Helm plots. Someone has framed Helm and two of his fellow agents by depositing large sums of money--well large by 1976 standards--into their bank accounts. The idea that secret agents, trained in the art of deception, would deposit bribe money in their own savings accounts at their local banks is ridiculous. That's what Swiss bank accounts and safety deposit boxes were for. Nonetheless, this crude attempt at a frame-up works to an extent, leading to the death of one of Matt's fellow agents who is arrested by the Bureau of Internal Security, a second agent escaping arrest by crossing the border into Mexico, and Helm eventually following her.
In typical Donald Hamilton style, it all turns out to be part of a convoluted plot to get certain agents out of the way, so a professional hitman can carry out an assassination of an important general in Baja California. The plan makes a bit of sense because, at this point in the series, Helm has returned to Baja California so frequently that he seems to have become Our Man in Mexico. Sometimes I get the impression that Donald Hamilton wrote the Matt Helm adventures around his vacations South of the Border.
As usual Helm is accompanied by two different women in the course of the novel. As usual he critiques some current popular womenswear--in this case a halter top and designer jeans. As usual he goes on an extensive road trip, this time from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the very tip of the Baja California peninsula. As usual we get a lot of descriptive local color. But, frankly, Donald Hamilton's descriptions of Mexico (see also "The Ambushers," "The Menacers," "The Poisoners" and "The Intriguers") are getting a little repetitive by now.
His descriptions of firearms are starting to get a little tiresome as well. He unquestionably has superior expertise in this area. But sometimes it bogs down the storytelling. The climax of the novel, which involves an ambush of an ambush of an ambush, gets so involved in describing all the different types of guns involved that it actually becomes rather tedious, at least for someone who isn't a gun enthusiast.
"The Retaliators" is a competently written Matt Helm adventure, but no more than that.
In typical Donald Hamilton style, it all turns out to be part of a convoluted plot to get certain agents out of the way, so a professional hitman can carry out an assassination of an important general in Baja California. The plan makes a bit of sense because, at this point in the series, Helm has returned to Baja California so frequently that he seems to have become Our Man in Mexico. Sometimes I get the impression that Donald Hamilton wrote the Matt Helm adventures around his vacations South of the Border.
As usual Helm is accompanied by two different women in the course of the novel. As usual he critiques some current popular womenswear--in this case a halter top and designer jeans. As usual he goes on an extensive road trip, this time from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the very tip of the Baja California peninsula. As usual we get a lot of descriptive local color. But, frankly, Donald Hamilton's descriptions of Mexico (see also "The Ambushers," "The Menacers," "The Poisoners" and "The Intriguers") are getting a little repetitive by now.
His descriptions of firearms are starting to get a little tiresome as well. He unquestionably has superior expertise in this area. But sometimes it bogs down the storytelling. The climax of the novel, which involves an ambush of an ambush of an ambush, gets so involved in describing all the different types of guns involved that it actually becomes rather tedious, at least for someone who isn't a gun enthusiast.
"The Retaliators" is a competently written Matt Helm adventure, but no more than that.
October 2, 2021
We find Mr. Helm at his bank in Santa Fe withdrawing around $8K to purchase a four-wheeled drive vehicle (SUV) in preparation for the upcoming hunting season. The teller was busy updating his passbook since Helm hadn’t been in Santa Fe for over a year. The passbook returned, Helm notices an extra $20K he had no notion of depositing. Calling Mac, he finds that another $20K had been deposited to his Washington account. Mac played along alerting Helm that their internal security (BIS) was on to this and looking for him. A female driver, Clarissa O’Hearn picked him up saying his hotel was monitored. Her brother Jack, another operator, was also being framed in the same way. Helm picked up his new SUV, or carryall as he called it, heading out of Santa Fe with Clarissa in tow. A BIS agent was also in tow, who Helm trapped, questioned, discovering that Jack had been killed by the BIS, and took along with Clarissa as hostage number two, heading to Mexico where he released the man. So much for the setup of the story. As the story progresses, it is clear that the BIS intends to kill Helm. He was sent south to put the touch on an enemy agent but things have become much more complicated. Something odd is going on in Baja, perhaps connected with the BIS problem, and Helm needs to figure out what it is, preferably before he’s dead. A revolution?
February 2, 2022
I've said before that these harken back to books I read in my blazing (or at least smoldering) youth. The Executioner, The Destroyer,The Terminator and others. I missed this series again as mentioned before because of the terrible movies. I was a huge fan of Bond, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I Spy, and in general Spy/fi. Too bad I missed these, well maybe not. They were here to be read now. I've not found a lot of light (yeah it's violent but I mean here it's a one sitting read) yet interesting reads, literary voices I like lately.
Anyway, I recommend all these. I'd suggest you consider starting from the beginning of the series as some adventures do harken back to earlier ones.
Anyway, here we have a more intricate plot. It's really well built, with many twists and turns some of which really do give a couple of surprises this time.
Cool. Recommended, enjoy.
Anyway, I recommend all these. I'd suggest you consider starting from the beginning of the series as some adventures do harken back to earlier ones.
Anyway, here we have a more intricate plot. It's really well built, with many twists and turns some of which really do give a couple of surprises this time.
Cool. Recommended, enjoy.
May 29, 2023
Not one of the best Helms, in my view. Too twisty, dramatically unconvincing, the strong female character has an incomplete presence, and it leans too much on previous stories. It also has the slightly unconvincing travelogue qualities of the weaker entries. When Helm describes the quality of Mexican hotel orange juice, I'm afraid I visualise Hamilton sitting opposite his wife on their holiday/research trip. This book it OK for completists, but it really isn't first-rate. Hilarious ending, though!
January 26, 2021
I love all the Matt Helm books, and this is no exception - it's delightfully devious. Matt's been framed for taking bribes, but that's not the kind of thing he takes lying down. But he also has a mission to bring to a successful conclusion, and he never walks out on a job. As always, he's faced with double-dealing and duplicity, and has trouble telling friends from foes. So - what else is new? Huge fun, plenty of actions and more red herrings than a season of "Murder, She Wrote".
June 2, 2021
Mrs O'Hearn asked curiously "Did you take your money out? I mean, the part that didn't belong there?"
"Naturally," I said. "As much as I could without attracting attention. I expect to use part of it, like Roger, for necessary expenditures, but I'm sure as hell going to make the guy who framed me eat whatever's left. Civilized forbearance isn't a habit with guys like Roger and me, Mrs. O'Hearn. I'm afraid we're just natural-born, eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth retaliators."
"Naturally," I said. "As much as I could without attracting attention. I expect to use part of it, like Roger, for necessary expenditures, but I'm sure as hell going to make the guy who framed me eat whatever's left. Civilized forbearance isn't a habit with guys like Roger and me, Mrs. O'Hearn. I'm afraid we're just natural-born, eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth retaliators."
June 10, 2017
If you haven't read the Matt Helm series, you've missed out on the most down-to-earth, most realistic spy series ever written. In this novel, pay-off money appears in Helm's bank accounts and he is accused of being a traitor. Alone and on the run, Helm heads into Mexico to drive uncharted roads and stop a revolution. Filled with action and intrigue.
November 11, 2017
Very Good; Continuing character: Matt Helm; Helm is accused of treason after extra money is found in his bank account, and takes off for Mexico to set things straight and get to the bottom of a planned assassination
February 7, 2019
A target-rich environment
Matt is sent to Mexico to take out a very skilled assassin. Turns out the assassin was on a dream assignment: not one target, not even two, but three. Heck of a payday if he could pull it off.
Matt is sent to Mexico to take out a very skilled assassin. Turns out the assassin was on a dream assignment: not one target, not even two, but three. Heck of a payday if he could pull it off.
July 5, 2022
The Retaliators
Good from start to finish. Good twists and turns and definitely some suspense. It has been probably twenty years since I read this book. It still just as good as the first time I read it.
Good from start to finish. Good twists and turns and definitely some suspense. It has been probably twenty years since I read this book. It still just as good as the first time I read it.
Read
March 30, 2024Realized, when I was close to end of book, that I read it many years ago. A decent Matt Helm story. It's funny, reading about characters stopping at phone booths to check in with headquarters, or each other, in books written before cell phones were a commonplace.
March 3, 2019
The usual plot with some twists
The usual Helm at work. Just a question of trying to figure out who the bad guys and/or women are.
The usual Helm at work. Just a question of trying to figure out who the bad guys and/or women are.
October 5, 2021
Back to Mexico - so no not too many travel tips from Don. Could have used more action and less of a convoluted plot
Read
May 23, 2022This is actually the worst one I've read yet.
The plot is senseless, the situations are preposterous.
Trudge on, 17 down, only 9 or ten left
The plot is senseless, the situations are preposterous.
Trudge on, 17 down, only 9 or ten left
November 3, 2015
The Retaliators is a title I came to by skipping past many after my reading of The Wrecking Crew. I wanted something remote, and this is as far as I could go in the Kindle editions as currently available.
The Retaliators being 16 years remote from the earliest in the series is both revealingly similar and slightly different. If any sense of one-for-one timing is to be observed, then Matt must be pushing 50, or more, and Mac (having been greying since WW2), must be beyond mandatory retirement (if he didn't shoot the head of HR, that is). I won't labor that equation any further.
Similarities are along familiar lines: the lone hunter, the pick-up of an innocent woman. By innocent, I mean seemingly-so, which is another affectation of Hamilton's story line. In these intervening years, little has drifted away from the central framework. However, 16 years has lessened the lethality that these innocents suffer, and that is different. But, still and all, Helm is quick to bed them.
I'm not sure how many more of these titles I will pick up to read, but I can readily anticipate they will be Westerns as much as all those I have read to this point.
At the end of the day, a good pulp read.
The Retaliators being 16 years remote from the earliest in the series is both revealingly similar and slightly different. If any sense of one-for-one timing is to be observed, then Matt must be pushing 50, or more, and Mac (having been greying since WW2), must be beyond mandatory retirement (if he didn't shoot the head of HR, that is). I won't labor that equation any further.
Similarities are along familiar lines: the lone hunter, the pick-up of an innocent woman. By innocent, I mean seemingly-so, which is another affectation of Hamilton's story line. In these intervening years, little has drifted away from the central framework. However, 16 years has lessened the lethality that these innocents suffer, and that is different. But, still and all, Helm is quick to bed them.
I'm not sure how many more of these titles I will pick up to read, but I can readily anticipate they will be Westerns as much as all those I have read to this point.
At the end of the day, a good pulp read.
August 2, 2014
I can only recommend this novel to Matt Helm fanatics. The plot is good, and there are some good scenes, but on the whole I am disappointed with the bloated text, compared to the earlier Matt Helms.
Donald Hamilton outsources the Matt Helm smooth move in this novel: another agent allows himself to be captured by the opposition, so I can't count it.
Number of times Matt Helm uses himself as bait in the Matt Helm series, and allows himself to be captured by the opposition (or presents himself directly to the opposition allowing the opposition to do whatever they please with him):
0 = DEATH OF A CITIZEN
1 = THE WRECKING CREW
2 = THE REMOVERS
1 = THE SILENCERS
1 = MURDERERS' ROW
3 = THE AMBUSHERS
2 = THE SHADOWERS
2 = THE RAVAGERS
1 = THE DEVASTATORS
1 = THE BETRAYERS
1 = THE MENACERS
3 = THE INTERLOPERS
1 = THE POISONERS
3 = THE INTRIGUERS
0 = THE INTIMIDATORS
0 = THE TERMINATORS
0 = THE RETALIATORS
17 Matt Helm novels so far. 22 times Matt lets himself get captured on purpose.
@hg47
October 9, 2015
One of the best of the series
Not since the first three books in this series has there been one that was as exciting and as much of a page turner than this one. Usually I need a break from Helm when I finish one. Now I cannot wait to read the next one in the series.
Not since the first three books in this series has there been one that was as exciting and as much of a page turner than this one. Usually I need a break from Helm when I finish one. Now I cannot wait to read the next one in the series.
July 9, 2016
Twenty thousand dollars mysteriously appears in Matt Helms bank account. Another agent who received a similar transaction is murdered. Helm needs to find the source of the money before he is the next target.
March 17, 2011
Too macho to enjoy.
November 26, 2014
Unfortunately, another padded 70s Helm that could lose 40 pages. Wish Hamilton had retired the series in the 60s.
July 14, 2015
There's enough action to keep your attention but I got a headache at the end where you have to plow through pages of explaining away the plot.
April 20, 2016
Again a thrilling read with layers and layers of deception...
May 3, 2023
Rich folks try to surreptitiously colonise part of Mexico. Matt Helm has to kill some people.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews