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This vintage novel showed up as an e-book bargain<\/strong> on Amazon. I\u2019d enjoyed previous books in the Matt Helm series, so I downloaded it.<\/p>\n Disclaimer: If you\u2019ve ever seen the Dean Martin Matt Helm movies, put them out of your mind. The movies have only the most tenuous connection to the original books.<\/p>\n At the start of The Retaliator<\/a><\/em>s, Matt Helm, professional government assassin, finds himself in his home town of Santa Fe, the beneficiary of a suspicious windfall. Somebody has deposited $20,000 into his checking account, without his knowledge. It\u2019s an old trick \u2013 clearly someone wants to discredit him, to make it look like he\u2019s taken a bribe. His suspicions run to the director of a rival government security agency, who has a personal vendetta against his group. Meanwhile, he learns that one of his fellow agents, a man he trusts, has been arrested. Matt heads south to Mexico both to avoid the same fate and to carry out an assignment, but finds himself dodging agency enemies and \u201cfriends\u201d who may or may not be trustworthy. There are also, of course, a couple of beautiful women in the mix.<\/p>\n Hamilton was a fine writer, and he told a lean, vivid story. Matt Helm is an interesting, if not always appealing, character, very much in the James Bond mold. He\u2019s not quite a machine, but he\u2019s a consummate professional. He\u2019s largely cut himself off from close human relationships, and all considerations must take second place to doing the job, which is killing. If he gets the chance to right some wrongs along the way, that\u2019s gravy, but it\u2019s not his focus.<\/p>\n The Retaliators<\/em>, like all the Matt Helm books, is an entertaining story in the \u201cmoral holiday\u201d mode. Adult themes, but not extreme by today\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This vintage novel showed up as an e-book bargain on Amazon. I\u2019d enjoyed previous books in the Matt Helm series, so I downloaded it. Disclaimer: If you\u2019ve ever seen the Dean Martin Matt Helm movies, put them out of your mind. The movies have only the most tenuous connection to the original books. At the … Continue reading ‘The Retaliators,’ by Donald Hamilton<\/span>