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Matt Helm novels back in print
FYI... Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm novels are coming back into print courtesy of Titan.
The first two, Death of a Citizen and The Wrecking Crew, have already been published (print and e-book editions), with the rest to follow in sequence.
I'd never read any of these before and was pleasantly surprised just how completely different thay are from those ridiculous, godawful Dean Martin movies of the 1960s. The Helm character is absolutely nothing like Dino's drunken, crooning superspy.
In fact, the literary Helm isn't a spy at all -- he's Uncle Sam's assassin.
Helm doesn't engage in espionage; his job is to eliminate. In the first book he's happily retired from government service (now working as a writer & photographer), is married and has a couple of kids. But events call him back into action for the unnamed "organization" -- a sub-unit of the CIA -- that issues kill orders.
Like Ian Fleming's Bond novels, these are set during the 1950s-'60s period of the Cold War. Helm is something of a sexist, misogynist dinosaur, but that fits with the times (half a century ago now) -- sort of Mad Men with guns.
Pretty good pulp so far. It'll be interesting to see if the series holds up.
The first two, Death of a Citizen and The Wrecking Crew, have already been published (print and e-book editions), with the rest to follow in sequence.
I'd never read any of these before and was pleasantly surprised just how completely different thay are from those ridiculous, godawful Dean Martin movies of the 1960s. The Helm character is absolutely nothing like Dino's drunken, crooning superspy.
In fact, the literary Helm isn't a spy at all -- he's Uncle Sam's assassin.
Helm doesn't engage in espionage; his job is to eliminate. In the first book he's happily retired from government service (now working as a writer & photographer), is married and has a couple of kids. But events call him back into action for the unnamed "organization" -- a sub-unit of the CIA -- that issues kill orders.
Like Ian Fleming's Bond novels, these are set during the 1950s-'60s period of the Cold War. Helm is something of a sexist, misogynist dinosaur, but that fits with the times (half a century ago now) -- sort of Mad Men with guns.
Pretty good pulp so far. It'll be interesting to see if the series holds up.
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Comments
As long as you shun the Books written AFTER the very excellent "The Terrorizers" (which really puts the "D" in dark and the "G" in gritty) you almost can't go wrong with any of the Books (if you leave Out "The Terminators", which was a sign of the softening and mediocre Things to come to Mr. Helm in the 80ies). Sure there are ups and downs, but each and everyone allows you to follow an Operator,which makes James Bond look like a powder Puff ( not my Quote, i read it on the excellent Matt Helm Fan Page "http://www.matthelmbooks.com/"; ,which is highly recomendable for anyone Interested in Helm). This might be a Fans Quote,but is nevertheless very true, since it is quite fair to say that 007 wouldn't hold up two Pages ,if he and Helm had to go at each other (as you have already read" Dead of a Citizen" you know what i mean). If you were Kind enough to ask for my quintessential Helm List this would be ...
Dead of a Citizen
The Removers
The Shadowers
The Interlopers
The Intriguers
The Retaliators
The Terrorizers
Let me stress,that these are MY Favourites! The net is Full of Essays that list other Novels as the Top of the heap, also quite a few that are very Fond of some of the post 1977 Books. I wrote up there how i feel about them, but it is not because they are lacking Plots. Each of them is overconvoluted with ideas,that would make 5 Novels, so it's quite possible you might like them as well.
Anyhow, you will find that Mr.Hamilton as a Writer easily tops Ian Fleming each and every Book when it comes to Prose and Humor ( well, apart from describing foreign Countries and travelogue in which Fleming REALLY excells IMHO).
By the Way, if you don't want to wait untill all of the Novels get republished, I got mine used from Amazon USA. The most expensive Part of it was the shipping to Europe (3€),so depending on where your Home Base is, you might be in for a real bargain.
Hope you find some of my ramblings helpfull and have Fun with the toughest minded Secret Agent of them all!