The Frighteners (novel)
Encyclopedia
The Frighteners is a 1989 spy novel by Donald Hamilton
, continuing the adventures of his creation, assassin Matt Helm
.
Hamilton took a break from writing Matt Helm novels after this book; the next volume would not appear until 1992.
Matt Helm starts by taking the place of an oil millionaire, this is one of the assignments where Mac is helping another agency by loaning out the services of his agent - Matt Helm. As usual, Mac is not doing this from purely altruistic purposes and gives Matt his usual warning - "Don't trust anyone" in the beginning of the novel. Head of the agency borrowing Matt Helm, a man called Somerset, wants Matt to go into Mexico and help trace a shipment of illegal arms, supposedly being smuggled to be supplied to Mexican revolutionaries by the said millionaire Horace Hosmer Cody.
In the beginning of the novel, Cody is arrested by Somerset's people and Helm takes his place with a make up job that he thinks will fool noone and it doesn't. Almost all of the story takes place in Mexico where Matt once again runs into his old ally Ramon Solana-Ruiz of the Mexican security.
The novel is full of intrigue and typical Matt Helm style action. Most of the characters don't turn out to be what they are shown to be in the beginning of the story and many of them go through radical image change including some of the dead characters. Matt, of course, succeeds in the mission completing all of the objectives, sometimes with help from others.
Donald Hamilton
Donald Bengtsson 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...
, continuing the adventures of his creation, assassin Matt Helm
Matt Helm
Matt Helm is a fictional character created by author Donald Hamilton. He is a U.S. government counter-agent—a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary sense of the term as used in spy thrillers.-The character and the series:The...
.
Hamilton took a break from writing Matt Helm novels after this book; the next volume would not appear until 1992.
Plot summary
Helm is assigned to impersonate a rich oil baron in order to track down a shipment of weapons before it can be used to overthrow the Mexican government.Matt Helm starts by taking the place of an oil millionaire, this is one of the assignments where Mac is helping another agency by loaning out the services of his agent - Matt Helm. As usual, Mac is not doing this from purely altruistic purposes and gives Matt his usual warning - "Don't trust anyone" in the beginning of the novel. Head of the agency borrowing Matt Helm, a man called Somerset, wants Matt to go into Mexico and help trace a shipment of illegal arms, supposedly being smuggled to be supplied to Mexican revolutionaries by the said millionaire Horace Hosmer Cody.
In the beginning of the novel, Cody is arrested by Somerset's people and Helm takes his place with a make up job that he thinks will fool noone and it doesn't. Almost all of the story takes place in Mexico where Matt once again runs into his old ally Ramon Solana-Ruiz of the Mexican security.
The novel is full of intrigue and typical Matt Helm style action. Most of the characters don't turn out to be what they are shown to be in the beginning of the story and many of them go through radical image change including some of the dead characters. Matt, of course, succeeds in the mission completing all of the objectives, sometimes with help from others.