The Intimidators

The Matt Helm Series, Book 15

By: Donald Hamilton

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

It was a double mission this time: First, to terminate a top-notch enemy agent. Second, to locate the missing fiancee of a Texas oil millionaire, lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Somehow these two cases were connected, but it wasn't clear how until more high-profile types disappeared. They weren't dead, just part of a deadly little game....

©1974, 2015 Donald Hamilton (P)2018 Blackstone Publishing and Skyboat Media, Inc.

Helm is king.

Another addition to my awesome list! I always feel like I'm right there, partaking in the madness. What a great reading. Directed beautifully, as always.

Starts with the old weirdness and character flaws ends better

There are times when this series does some interesting and maybe unique things with the plot twists.

But just when you think the character is developing, he sort of back tracks.

There are times when the main characters sexism and racism and homophobia needlessly reassert and in a tone like that of a grumpy old man chasing kids off his lawn.

The geek out on ‘high tech’ concepts like boating through narrow channels while up on a plane is noticeably from earlier times and yet interesting too.

The new college back story for Matt Helm described during this book is interesting as well and makes me wonder how much Lee Child might have directly or indirectly been influenced by the character in what almost seems like a Jack Reacher genesis scenario, maybe Matt Helm was a distant uncle or cousin of Reacher’s father.

Great story

I have always read Matt Helm books and looked forward to hearing this book. I really enjoy how Stefan Rudnicki narrates all Matt Helm books

he gets himself out of lots of jams

he gets himself out a lot of jams and gets to meet a lot of women not always good women but a lot of women

Full of action

I enjoyed this novel. Twisty intrigue. The narrator was a big part of making this story interesting.

Darlings

No one has every woman he meets call him darling. Where is he editor? Seriously, it messes with the entire story. I won’t read a famous author because he uses “inordinately” dozens of times on just a few pages. He does sound sexist and racist. A different era, I suppose..

Bermuda Triangle mystery!

We find Matt fishing in the Bahamas again, seems he does a lot of that, fishing that is. A call from Mac informs him to go to Nassau, New Providence Island, BWI to determine why Pavel Minsk, “The Mink” is there and then make the “touch”, who Mac said is long overdue. Bill Hazeltine, Matt’s contact, began briefing Helm on the Bermuda Triangle. To cut matters short, a recent disappearance in the Triangle included a woman Hazeltine loved and wanted her found. Matt was to assist in this endeavor. How these two missions were connected was unclear to Matt but he assumed they were. So much for the setup of the story. People continue to disappear or get killed, and one thing leads to another. Hazeltine’s quest gains credibility and/or suspicion. From this point, the story was a bit confusing with different characters, twists and turns, and various motives coming to play. This is not one of my favorite Matt Helm novels. There have only been a couple like this that I’m not impressed with. Well, they can’t all be great.