Donald Hamilton

I noticed on Amazon that at least some of Donald Hamilton’s Matt Helm books are back it print. I am glad to see it. It is a long series, and as with a number of others, the quality declined as the series wore on. (Hamilton even resorted to the old protagonist-has-amnesia and gee-maybe-the- Aztec/Mayan/Navaho/some-other-primitives-myths-are-real tricks in  a couple of the later books.) However, most of the first dozen or so are hard, tough, exciting, well written stories which present a milieu of spies and assassins so vividly and compellingly that a person may catch himself wondering if the author is speaking from direct experience. (I know of no evidence that he was. I have never heard anyone claim the Hamilton was a secret agent during World War II.)

I recommend reading the first few books in the order they were first published, since the events in those stories are tied together chronologically in  the order of publication. Besides, the first book Death of a Citizen is also one of the best.

I also recommend  saving your time and money on the books  published late in the series. By the way, the books have little or nothing in common with the Matt Helm movies starring Dean Martin.