The Frighteners

Hamilton’s Matt Helm series is written the way espionage novels should all be written. No fancy gadgets, flying cars, or exploding umbrellas. But what you get is tough, hard nosed, no nonsense tactics about a guy who knows he has to do the dirty work if he’s going to keep this country safe. That means don’t fall for any hostage taking, understanding that you may be sacrificed, and that everywhere you look could be a trap.

The Frighteners is one of the best of a top-notch series. It begins with Helm taking a bridegroom’s place as the happy couple drive off to their honeymoon in Mexico and leads Helm to armed revolutionaries, deadly assassins, hikes through forbidding territory, gets him shot, captured, and seduced by morevthan one heartbreaker. There’s no book on who to trust, whose going to pull a double cross, and wha his ultimate goal in this is.

This story is chock full of action, thrills, gunfire, and is absolutely unquestionably worth your time to read.