Matt Helm is a solid
citizen. He is married with three children. He makes a living writing popular
novels (western’s mostly), and lives with his family in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
His picture perfect American dream is mangled when Tina, an operative he briefly
worked with in Europe during World War II, walks through the front entrance of
a cocktail party. She passes an old signal to Matt—“I’ll get in touch with you
later. Stand by”—and in an instant (and without much fuss) Matt’s idyllic
existence shatters.
Death of a Citizen
is the first (of 27) Matt Helm novels, and it is absolutely terrific. In the
opening sequence Helm is an everyman; likable and stable with a pretty wife and
a family, but it only takes a few hours for his old habits to take over. It
starts with a dead woman in his writing room, and then a confrontation with
Tina who, after some convincing from Matt, weaves a fantastic story about a
Soviet agent hunting a nuclear scientist working for the Atomic Energy
Commission at Los Alamos.
The action is convincing,
the prose is smooth and cool—
“Suddenly I was feeling fine. You can
stay tense only so long. I was over the hump. I was driving ten miles out of
the way, with a corpse in the bed of the truck, just to take a worthless alley
cat home.”
And the plot is as tight
and smooth as a guy wire. There is more than the usual backstory about Helm’s
World War II exploits, and post war life, but it is done without interrupting
the forward momentum of the plot. Even better, Mac—the leader of the
“organization” Matt worked for, and is once again working for—makes an
appearance in the field, and Helm’s doubt and operational rust give him an
element of believability.
Death of a Citizen
is the first of the Matt Helm novels, but it is as convincing, urgent, and well
written as any. In a sense it is the primer. It introduces Helm, the
organization, and everything it is, which is essentially a kind of counter
intelligence wet work squad. It is the cold war on a small field. The best
part, the citizen who lost his life (from the title) is Helm himself, and what
he gains is a certain freedom, his code name Eric, and an outlet for his
violent nature.
Death of a Citizen
was originally published by Gold Medal in 1960, and it was recently reissued as
a paperback by Titan Books.
3 comments:
I was kind of put off by his constant mentioning that women should all have long hair, wear dresses and high heels. I know it was the early 60's but it still seems off putting.
Of the major and definitive "super-spies," Helm genuinely did make James Bond "look like a powder-puff," as several Fawcett cover blurbs had it. And the quality of the series, for me at least, lasted until the later books started to feel overlong and thus padded--e.g., see my review at https://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2013/06/ffb-review-vanishers-by-donald-hamilton.html\
I agree with Steve Oerkfitz's comments, as well as other ongoing observations that became somewhat tedious. The one I recall as the most frequent was what happened when a female character with whom Helm had an initially somewhat disagreeable relationship--which occurred often from book to book--ended up with them in bed. After that the woman constantly referred to Helm as "darling."
Gimme a break!
Without a doubt, another writer for me to read.
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