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Matt Helm #18
Matt Helm - The Terrorizers
The survivor of a plane crash wakes up in a hospital in Canada, his memory a blank. Then in walks Kitty, a gorgeous woman, who tells him that he is Paul Madden, a photographer, and her fiancé. Not bad. Except that a man on the phone keeps calling him Matt Helm. Things don’t add up. This can only mean trouble...
183 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1977
39 people are currently reading
132 people want to read
About the author
Donald Hamilton
104 books108 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 - 21 of 21 reviews
January 5, 2020
In the Terrorizers, the eighteenth book in the Matt Helm series, Hamilton returns to a plot-line that he first used in 1954 in Night walker - - that of amnesia and espionage mixed together. Here, Helm, who was a long-time member of a special assassination squad, finds himself in a Vancouver hospital, with a different name, a different background, and a beautiful fiancée. He simply cannot remember anything about what preceded his admittance into the hospital, including his entire life. There are hints that everything is not as it seems – he has bullet wounds over his body that are unaccounted for – scars that his war record does not include. And, someone calls and tells him that he is Helm.
The story takes Helm to a torture chamber, to a psych hospital, and into a world where fringe groups are out to destroy anything that reeks of establishment even if that means planting bombs and hurting innocents. His own role in these endeavors is not entirely clear to him, but his body remembers the skills he learned over his long career.
This is an excellent book and is filled with Hamilton’s trademarked matter-of-fact realism which made Helm, at least in literary form, one of America’s most beloved spy heroes, one who did not need the latest fancy gadgets or supersonic vehicles to do his work.
The story takes Helm to a torture chamber, to a psych hospital, and into a world where fringe groups are out to destroy anything that reeks of establishment even if that means planting bombs and hurting innocents. His own role in these endeavors is not entirely clear to him, but his body remembers the skills he learned over his long career.
This is an excellent book and is filled with Hamilton’s trademarked matter-of-fact realism which made Helm, at least in literary form, one of America’s most beloved spy heroes, one who did not need the latest fancy gadgets or supersonic vehicles to do his work.
April 23, 2020
The latest addition to the series from Skyboat Media. Even though I've read the book several times in paper, hearing it narrated by Stephan Rudnicki is enough of a treat that I purchased the book as soon as it was available. Highly recommended.
Even back when this was written, the memory loss gambit was old, but Hamilton does it really well. The events at the end of this book are referred to in another book later in the series, so it's definitely best to read them in order.
Even back when this was written, the memory loss gambit was old, but Hamilton does it really well. The events at the end of this book are referred to in another book later in the series, so it's definitely best to read them in order.
August 24, 2017
THE TERRORIZERS is a top ten Matt Helm book. The other nine are Citizen, Removers, Murderers' Row, Ambushers, Devastators, Betrayers, Menacers, Interlopers and Terminators. 27 total were published. I remember TERRORIZERS being in the stores almost immediately on the heels of the previous episode THE RETALIATORS.
THE TERRORIZERS is rollicking pulp fun; Eric battles terrorists in Canada while, just to ramp up the fun meter a notch, suffering amnesia. Helm literally has to divine what diabolical menace he's pitted against. Helm's at his witty best in TERRORIZERS, after the bad guys beat the tar out of him with blunt instruments he, with great detachment, remarks: "Then we moved to electricity." Also I grinned at Helm's wry list of the terrorists' crimes to the reader: 'this explosion, that bombing and "the Toronto Railroad bang."'
Author extraordinaire Donald Hamilton's wit and economy were integral cornerstones in the Matt Hem foundation making the books as unformulaic and readable as they (still) are.
THE TERRORIZERS marked the eighteenth Eric & Mac book Hamilton published and it marks the end of an era. After this volume Hamilton would not man the helm again for another five years.
When he relocated the Helm muse Hamilton had to almost double the word count of his books to justify their much higher current cost to the reader, almost twice the $1.75 price of THE TERRORIZERS in its first paperback run. The three prior to that cost $1.25 and $1.50 respectively; THE INTRIGUERS #14 was the last Helm book one could buy under a dollar. When I first started reading Matt Helm books I bought better ones for 40 and 50 cents. Those last nine bloated tales from 1982 till 1993 loosened the flawlessly taut wire of suspense running through the 18 earlier works.
That's what killed the series for me.
Six of the early Helm books aren't even novels by strict definition, they're novellas. CITIZEN, SILENCERS, MURDERERS' ROW, AMBUSHERS, SHADOWERS and RAVAGERS all qualify as novellas because the word count is around 40,000. I'd gladly pay $50 for 40,000 of Hamilton's words in a row all crisp and concise, but not for 100,000 of them.
THE TERRORIZERS is rollicking pulp fun; Eric battles terrorists in Canada while, just to ramp up the fun meter a notch, suffering amnesia. Helm literally has to divine what diabolical menace he's pitted against. Helm's at his witty best in TERRORIZERS, after the bad guys beat the tar out of him with blunt instruments he, with great detachment, remarks: "Then we moved to electricity." Also I grinned at Helm's wry list of the terrorists' crimes to the reader: 'this explosion, that bombing and "the Toronto Railroad bang."'
Author extraordinaire Donald Hamilton's wit and economy were integral cornerstones in the Matt Hem foundation making the books as unformulaic and readable as they (still) are.
THE TERRORIZERS marked the eighteenth Eric & Mac book Hamilton published and it marks the end of an era. After this volume Hamilton would not man the helm again for another five years.
When he relocated the Helm muse Hamilton had to almost double the word count of his books to justify their much higher current cost to the reader, almost twice the $1.75 price of THE TERRORIZERS in its first paperback run. The three prior to that cost $1.25 and $1.50 respectively; THE INTRIGUERS #14 was the last Helm book one could buy under a dollar. When I first started reading Matt Helm books I bought better ones for 40 and 50 cents. Those last nine bloated tales from 1982 till 1993 loosened the flawlessly taut wire of suspense running through the 18 earlier works.
That's what killed the series for me.
Six of the early Helm books aren't even novels by strict definition, they're novellas. CITIZEN, SILENCERS, MURDERERS' ROW, AMBUSHERS, SHADOWERS and RAVAGERS all qualify as novellas because the word count is around 40,000. I'd gladly pay $50 for 40,000 of Hamilton's words in a row all crisp and concise, but not for 100,000 of them.
September 9, 2012
This is a re-read for me. I'm re-reading the whole series,in fact.
Hamilton is nearly at the top of his game with this one. Amnesia is the plot device, that finds a nature photographer, who looks suspiciously like one skinny American sanctioned hitman, waking up in the hospital. It seems a plane went down, and the pilot, who has three or four official identities remains missing while this photographer is the one survivor.
Matt's boss thinks even without his memory, if you put Mr. Helm in the middle of something he'll react on instinct and the results will still be close to those that are expected.
Its a good,if some what short tale, that none the less concludes right where you expect a Matt Helm story does.
I dont usually do this,but there was a passage in the book that I thought was particularly relative to current times- "Terrorists scare people" I said. "For terrorism, they're willing to make exceptions. They condone official acts they'd never sanction if perpetrated in the line of ordinary intelligence-gathering or law-enforcement operations". Hamilton wrote this book in 1977, but the idea of terror and politics should be one we pay attention to all the time.
I put volume 19 on the reading pile, next stop is an Alphabet Murder mystery tho.
Hamilton is nearly at the top of his game with this one. Amnesia is the plot device, that finds a nature photographer, who looks suspiciously like one skinny American sanctioned hitman, waking up in the hospital. It seems a plane went down, and the pilot, who has three or four official identities remains missing while this photographer is the one survivor.
Matt's boss thinks even without his memory, if you put Mr. Helm in the middle of something he'll react on instinct and the results will still be close to those that are expected.
Its a good,if some what short tale, that none the less concludes right where you expect a Matt Helm story does.
I dont usually do this,but there was a passage in the book that I thought was particularly relative to current times- "Terrorists scare people" I said. "For terrorism, they're willing to make exceptions. They condone official acts they'd never sanction if perpetrated in the line of ordinary intelligence-gathering or law-enforcement operations". Hamilton wrote this book in 1977, but the idea of terror and politics should be one we pay attention to all the time.
I put volume 19 on the reading pile, next stop is an Alphabet Murder mystery tho.
October 23, 2014
The basic plot (amnesia) is trite & over used, but it's as well done as I've ever read it. Helm's physical condition is well detailed & taken into account. He even bruises his hand as he kills a man proving that he's really just a tough, logical human, not a Hollywood hero.
The time is 1980 & Helm's age is indeterminate which plays well with the story. The plot is somewhat convoluted in the beginning, but steadies down nicely to a very satisfactory ending.
The time is 1980 & Helm's age is indeterminate which plays well with the story. The plot is somewhat convoluted in the beginning, but steadies down nicely to a very satisfactory ending.
January 1, 2013
One of the best of the Matt Helm books - he's less in control of what's going on than usual, so he's a more complex character than before. This was the first book the "New Matt Helm" series.
May 27, 2022
I honestly was hoping that as we transitioned from the 60's to the 70's these books would get better and be less dated. Nope, this is by far the worst Matt Helm book yet. This time instead of writing a playbook for the bumbling CIA to use, he has written a tome for WHO, the CDC, and Duke University Medical Center for their inane medical practices. Amnesia? WTF? But in the end Matt Helm really wasn't suffering from Amnesia, he was faking it. But I should have known because he is the only "secret agent" that tries to get caught, usually by a pounding to his dense head, then once on the inside, he can kill the bad guys. Stupid, inane, childish, dated, holds up well - NO! Darling, silly, fanny, if it matters, if you must know, you damned fool, Good Grief, my grandmother could have written better, less dated spy stories than these. I just read a book by the great Hammond Innes, North Star, now that guy wrote stories that hold up well. I can't imagine what kind of nut Donald Hamilton must have been. I'll give him credit, he was smart enough to know to "sell" his character to the publisher and he just got paid, other idiots wrote books, probably far worse and more ridiculous than he could himself. Mean while he laughed all the way to the bank.
18 down, I think about 8 to go in the original canon - do yourself a favor and don't listen to anyone who is reading these awful books, I remain you honest and faithful reporter - DO NOT READ THIS BOOK, or any other Matt Helm book, don't get started or you will be trapped as I am, in HELL, teh damned fool that I am.
18 down, I think about 8 to go in the original canon - do yourself a favor and don't listen to anyone who is reading these awful books, I remain you honest and faithful reporter - DO NOT READ THIS BOOK, or any other Matt Helm book, don't get started or you will be trapped as I am, in HELL, teh damned fool that I am.
January 3, 2022
Now for something different. The small freighter, Island Prince fished Helm out of the water in Hecate Strait near British Columbia, Canada. Helm had the misfortune to crash in a chartered bush plane. The pilot, Herb Walters was presumed dead. The freighter dropped Helm off at their next stop and a helicopter took him to Prince Rupert Regional Hospital. Helm suffered from a knock on the head and didn’t remember much, including who he was. Catherine “Kitty” Davidson, a pretty young woman, showed up claiming the title of fiancée and proceeded to convey the 411 on who he was; Paul H. Madden, a freelance photographer from Seattle. Sally Wong, the young woman from the plane charter, showed up and filled in some more information about Paul Madden and the bush plane charter. Evidently, Paul Madden had a bit of a fling with Sally as well. Paul, err… Helm, was released from the hospital and saddled with the task of figuring out who he was. So much for the setup of the story. Helm was captured, of course, his usual method to find the enemy and gather information. Helm’s amnesia persisted and had him making decisions you would have never thought possible, but like all good things, they come to an end. As we round the turn heading towards the final stretch of the series, unusual events may take place. This is one of the more interesting novels.
November 18, 2020
The Bourne Identity 4 years BEFORE Ludlum's book:
Quite possibly the BEST Matt Helm thriller book in the lengthy series, The Terrorizers keeps the reader on his/her/hix toes with constant actions and plots that interweave and finally unravel in a satisfactory conclusion. Stefan Rudnicki is, as always, the perfect narrator. TWO THUMBS UP
Quite possibly the BEST Matt Helm thriller book in the lengthy series, The Terrorizers keeps the reader on his/her/hix toes with constant actions and plots that interweave and finally unravel in a satisfactory conclusion. Stefan Rudnicki is, as always, the perfect narrator. TWO THUMBS UP
June 20, 2021
"Cut it out," I said to Ross one day."You act as if they were people and I ought to feel guilty or something. A terrorist isn't people. Regardless of how wonderful his motives may be, he's something that's resigned from the human race." I grimaced. "Okay, I'm prejudiced. I feel about them exactly the way some people feel about drug peddlers. "
March 27, 2019
Helm wakes up in a hospital with amnesia in Canada
Helm wakes up not knowing his own name. Evidently a survivor from a small plane crash in Canada. Everyone is calling him Paul Madden.
Helm wakes up not knowing his own name. Evidently a survivor from a small plane crash in Canada. Everyone is calling him Paul Madden.
February 8, 2019
Amnesia
Yeah, the old gag, but in this case done fairly well. A lot of the story revolved around the wonders of memory, and what it can be like if they're gone.
Yeah, the old gag, but in this case done fairly well. A lot of the story revolved around the wonders of memory, and what it can be like if they're gone.
February 16, 2021
Although this looks a recent edition, (the bibliographic reference says the first edition was 2015) the book probably was published in 1977 when Donald Hamilton's copyright was declared. It has, moreover, a feel of a sixties or fifties book in the way it describes and objectivises women:
"The girl was wearing a very neat, very tailored, very occidental tweed suit with a skirt, not pants. The rare, precious sight of a pair of nice girl-legs in nylons was almost too much for me to bear in my weakened condition." It brought back unwelcome memories of writers like Micky Spillane and Carter Brown, catering to an undemanding juvenile male audience which no longer exists.
The internal references to Watergate and to groups like The Bader Meinhoff Gang and The Weathermen does place it in the world of the Nineteen Seventies when radical left wing groups not white supremacists threatened life as we know it. That aspect of the novel was, however much easier to stomach.
The device of a secret agent who has lost his memory and can neither recall who he is or who he was impersonating working undercover, is an engaging twist even if we have seen it done better in The Bourne Identity. When Helm recovers his memory (after another blow to the head) it almost comes as an anticlimax. It passes notice as we are close to the climax with the parody of a dysfunctional left wing group carrying out its work.
In the plot, the discovery the PPP are the tools of a criminal who uses their bombings to disguise his work as a paid assassin while unnecessary, is also told as an after thought by the Royal Canadian police officer.
In the end, this is a dime novel, an undemanding read which would satisfy only those who expect little in their books.
"The girl was wearing a very neat, very tailored, very occidental tweed suit with a skirt, not pants. The rare, precious sight of a pair of nice girl-legs in nylons was almost too much for me to bear in my weakened condition." It brought back unwelcome memories of writers like Micky Spillane and Carter Brown, catering to an undemanding juvenile male audience which no longer exists.
The internal references to Watergate and to groups like The Bader Meinhoff Gang and The Weathermen does place it in the world of the Nineteen Seventies when radical left wing groups not white supremacists threatened life as we know it. That aspect of the novel was, however much easier to stomach.
The device of a secret agent who has lost his memory and can neither recall who he is or who he was impersonating working undercover, is an engaging twist even if we have seen it done better in The Bourne Identity. When Helm recovers his memory (after another blow to the head) it almost comes as an anticlimax. It passes notice as we are close to the climax with the parody of a dysfunctional left wing group carrying out its work.
In the plot, the discovery the PPP are the tools of a criminal who uses their bombings to disguise his work as a paid assassin while unnecessary, is also told as an after thought by the Royal Canadian police officer.
In the end, this is a dime novel, an undemanding read which would satisfy only those who expect little in their books.
June 7, 2022
The book begins with Matt Helm in the hospital after being fished from the sea following a plane crash. He has amnesia, but has otherwise not lost any of his observational or deductive skills. He soon figures out that the name he's been using (Paul Madden) is a cover identity and that he is a spy of some sort. Other than that, though, he has no idea what is going on.
This premise gives "The Terrorizers" a unique feel as Helm is tossed into a case in which (it turns out) he's trying to help track down a small terrorist group that is responsible for several recent bombings. Of course, in a Matt Helm novel, nothing is ever that straightforward. The story soon expands to include an insane asylum used to torture prisoners and the mysterious presence of a top Mafia hitman who seems to be associated with the terrorists for no reason that makes immediate sense. Matt also considers taking advantage of his amnesia by resigning from his own organization and starting a new life that isn't stuffed with unpleasant memories.
This allows the author to include several emotional gut punches in the story without in any way slowing down the action. The last few chapters find Matt and another agent prisoners aboard a small cabin cruiser docked in a remote river. Here, Matt learns explanations of most of what is going on in a scene that is a little bit contrived--the bad guys conveniently drop a lot of exposition in their dialogue--but the intense, bloodbath of a finale more than makes up for this. Overall, this is one of the best books in the series.
This premise gives "The Terrorizers" a unique feel as Helm is tossed into a case in which (it turns out) he's trying to help track down a small terrorist group that is responsible for several recent bombings. Of course, in a Matt Helm novel, nothing is ever that straightforward. The story soon expands to include an insane asylum used to torture prisoners and the mysterious presence of a top Mafia hitman who seems to be associated with the terrorists for no reason that makes immediate sense. Matt also considers taking advantage of his amnesia by resigning from his own organization and starting a new life that isn't stuffed with unpleasant memories.
This allows the author to include several emotional gut punches in the story without in any way slowing down the action. The last few chapters find Matt and another agent prisoners aboard a small cabin cruiser docked in a remote river. Here, Matt learns explanations of most of what is going on in a scene that is a little bit contrived--the bad guys conveniently drop a lot of exposition in their dialogue--but the intense, bloodbath of a finale more than makes up for this. Overall, this is one of the best books in the series.
February 3, 2022
Over the years I've been reading these. As I've noted many times I missed these back when I was a young, virile, adventurous man and reading the so called men's adventure book. (By the way I've found and read a few other of those old books I missed back then, but they often cost so much...wow).
I suppose I should have noted before (by the way) for other books Matt is far from politically correct. Please remember that these were written "back when" and try not to lose it too badly when Matt calls a person an Oriental or some-such.
Anyway, good books and this one is also. Good story, interesting. Recommended.
By the way there are a couple of references to Bond here. One of them quite humorous (covered with blood, mud, etc. and staggering along injured and hurt he observes that the next time he wants the assignment in the Casino where he can dress in evening clothes while with a slinky beautiful woman who has a pearl handled weapon in a diamond studded evening bag).
BY the way...have you read On Her Majesty's Secret Service ?
I suppose I should have noted before (by the way) for other books Matt is far from politically correct. Please remember that these were written "back when" and try not to lose it too badly when Matt calls a person an Oriental or some-such.
Anyway, good books and this one is also. Good story, interesting. Recommended.
By the way there are a couple of references to Bond here. One of them quite humorous (covered with blood, mud, etc. and staggering along injured and hurt he observes that the next time he wants the assignment in the Casino where he can dress in evening clothes while with a slinky beautiful woman who has a pearl handled weapon in a diamond studded evening bag).
BY the way...have you read On Her Majesty's Secret Service ?
October 22, 2024
Helm wakes up in a hospital room with amnesia. He has survived a plane crash in Canada. Kitty Davenport visits him in the hospital claiming to be his fiancé. He receives a phone call from Mac, who uses his real name over an open line.
Helm and Kitty are kidnapped and tortured for days. The torturers realize he actually has amnesia. Security becomes lax and Helm escapes with Kitty, leaving a bloodbath behind.
A Canadian official named Ross briefs him on various terrorist attacks in Canada and the US. Kitty and Helm both decide to quit the agency. Then Kitty is murdered and Helm begins to remember.
A tight little adventure. A bit sad. It seems Helm really liked her.
Helm and Kitty are kidnapped and tortured for days. The torturers realize he actually has amnesia. Security becomes lax and Helm escapes with Kitty, leaving a bloodbath behind.
A Canadian official named Ross briefs him on various terrorist attacks in Canada and the US. Kitty and Helm both decide to quit the agency. Then Kitty is murdered and Helm begins to remember.
A tight little adventure. A bit sad. It seems Helm really liked her.
December 25, 2023
Paul Madden wakes up in a hospital bed with amnesia. He's positively identified by his fiance - but he doesn't know her. And then a voice on the phone says one word: "Helm"... And Matt Helm is off again in another of his wild adventures, this time against a group of bombers. There are the usual twists and turns, a couple of interesting villains and a fast-paced plot. Greta fun, as always.
November 18, 2021
The amnesia gimmick was interesting... then it switched over to some dull chatter.
May 8, 2023
Was really interesting to have Matt start the book with all his skills but none of his memories, so that we got to see him figure out a situation from a standing start.
August 19, 2014
I like the opening, where Matt Helm can't remember who he is or what he does; and I like the escape-from-mental-hospital bit. But the rest of the novel doesn't really work for me anymore.
A bonus for me was that even though Matt Helm can't remember who he is, he allows himself to be captured, while he is surprised that he knows how to avoid capture!
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
1 - THE TERRORIZERS
Eighteen Matt Helm Novels; Twenty-three times Matt allows himself to be captured on purpose.
@hg47
June 17, 2023
18 books in, Hamilton pulls off one of the best. The obsession with women's underwear is diminished, thank God -- if not wholly absent; and the plot's events are in places third-hand, erratic and trite, as other reviewers observe. But what does work is Helm's warmly cold voice and Hamilton's intelligent (if for my taste slightly too right-wing) take on the desperate and violent workings of the human comedy -- in particular, this time, the nature of terrorism. And this book has a really adult sex scene, where Helm and a companion have tender, post-traumatic sex to try and discover, after both being tortured, if everything still works -- as ever, Hamilton swerves with witty euphemism around the actual physical details. In the hands of a bad writer, Helm would be unbearable; but Hamilton makes him in many ways the equal of Bond, and in some ways his superior.
(On a minor technical note, Helm reassumes his relationship with his boss a little too slickly, in my opinion.)
(On a minor technical note, Helm reassumes his relationship with his boss a little too slickly, in my opinion.)
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews