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Matt Helm #25
The Frighteners
Matt Helm has been assigned to impersonate a newlywed oilman, Horace Cody, who has been dabbling in arms dealing. Something tells Matt that the Mexican will not last long . . . and he is more right than he knows! The twenty-fifth in this spine-tingling, hard-hitting series.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1989
31 people are currently reading
123 people want to read
About the author
Donald Hamilton
102 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 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 31, 2018
Hamilton's Matt Helm series is written the way espionage novels should all be written. No fancy gadgets, flying cars, or exploding umbrellas. But what you get is tough, hard nosed, no nonsense tactics about a guy who knows he has to do the dirty work if he's going to keep this country safe. That means don't fall for any hostage taking, understanding that you may be sacrificed, and that everywhere you look could be a trap.
The Frighteners is one of the best of a top-notch series. It begins with Helm taking a bridegroom's place as the happy couple drive off to their honeymoon in Mexico and leads Helm to armed revolutionaries, deadly assassins, hikes through forbidding territory, gets him shot, captured, and seduced by morevthan one heartbreaker. There's no book on who to trust, whose going to pull a double cross, and wha his ultimate goal in this is.
This story is chock full of action, thrills, gunfire, and is absolutely unquestionably worth your time to read.
The Frighteners is one of the best of a top-notch series. It begins with Helm taking a bridegroom's place as the happy couple drive off to their honeymoon in Mexico and leads Helm to armed revolutionaries, deadly assassins, hikes through forbidding territory, gets him shot, captured, and seduced by morevthan one heartbreaker. There's no book on who to trust, whose going to pull a double cross, and wha his ultimate goal in this is.
This story is chock full of action, thrills, gunfire, and is absolutely unquestionably worth your time to read.
October 23, 2014
Most of the Matt Helm books have a fairly twisted plot, but this one has a bit more than usual. It's a great action read with some excellent characters & wonderful scenery as only Hamilton can describe it.
On the other hand, there are some elements that are being ridden a bit too hard. It's a good thing Helm has a hard head. He gets whacked or takes glancing shots to it almost every book.
Possibly over used, although I still like it, is Helm's constant struggles with idealists, many who work for the same government he does. Hamilton seems to have a thing about idealists who lose sight of the big picture. I agree completely, so enjoy his slaps at them.
On to the next book (next to the last!) The Threateners
On the other hand, there are some elements that are being ridden a bit too hard. It's a good thing Helm has a hard head. He gets whacked or takes glancing shots to it almost every book.
Possibly over used, although I still like it, is Helm's constant struggles with idealists, many who work for the same government he does. Hamilton seems to have a thing about idealists who lose sight of the big picture. I agree completely, so enjoy his slaps at them.
On to the next book (next to the last!) The Threateners
October 14, 2018
It's been five decades since I've read a Matt Helm novel and forgotten how much grittier, more believable and better they were than the Bond books. So I'm going on a scavenger hunt to track them all down.
If all you know about Matt Helm is the silly Dean Martin action comedies. Forget them and read the books. Helm is the real deal.
If all you know about Matt Helm is the silly Dean Martin action comedies. Forget them and read the books. Helm is the real deal.
February 25, 2019
South of the border again
This time, Matt has to take on an American plot, even tho he's in Mexico. Hamilton manages some political commentary while juggling an interesting story and a couple of intriguing characters.
This time, Matt has to take on an American plot, even tho he's in Mexico. Hamilton manages some political commentary while juggling an interesting story and a couple of intriguing characters.
January 16, 2021
One of the better ones in this series. The Frighteners introduces one of the best characters Mr. Hamilton created. A lot of twist & turns in the story that lead to an exciting climax. Wish there were more Matt Helm stories.
August 11, 2025
Think I know why the final Matt Helm novel remains unpublished. What began as a fun, lean series became a sort of bloated paperback filler. Disappointing since the early Helms are great.
September 12, 2021
"Well, I tried to pass it off lightly: 'Why, Uncle Buffy!' and he said a bad word and told me he wasn't my uncle, he'd never been my uncle, and he had no intention of ever becoming my uncle. He said he's had his eye on me all the time I was growing up, but he'd never stepped out of line, not once, wasn't that right? But now I was big enough, and I was sure purty enough, if people were trying to kill me he damn well wanted me where he could keep and eye on me...That was when the phone rang. Somehow I knew what it would be, and I pulled him over to it and picked it up and held it so we could both hear. It was the Voice again, of course: 'Three times lucky is better than your daddy managed, girlie, but you can't escape us forever.'" She grimaced. "It was the last straw. I'm no sturdy feminist heroine; I wanted somebody to protect me. I'd become pretty disillusioned about romantic young men my own age anyway; sooner or later I'd always see that cash-register look in their eyes. Poor little rich girl, ha! If romance was what I wanted, how could I do better than the man who'd waited for me so patiently and loyally all those years? But mostly I was just terrified and looking for shelter."
"So you agreed to marry him."
"Yes," she said. "And three weeks later I learned that all those men had been hired by him to make it happen just that way! The driver of the pickup truck, the sniper in the vacant lot, the man in my dressing room who was also, it turned out, The Voice. All working hard to scare the dumb wench into Uncle Buffy's arms and bring his long courtship that he hadn't even know was a courtship to a successful conclusion."
"The frighteners," I said.
"So you agreed to marry him."
"Yes," she said. "And three weeks later I learned that all those men had been hired by him to make it happen just that way! The driver of the pickup truck, the sniper in the vacant lot, the man in my dressing room who was also, it turned out, The Voice. All working hard to scare the dumb wench into Uncle Buffy's arms and bring his long courtship that he hadn't even know was a courtship to a successful conclusion."
"The frighteners," I said.
February 23, 2017
Terrific as always... and a stout character to complement Helm
July 19, 2017
Good basic story, but the narrative kept eroding my ability to care about the characters. The writing is mediocre
June 15, 2022
Definitely, one of the better of the later Matt Helm books.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews