Death of a Citizen (Matt Helm #1) (1960)

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by Donald Hamilton



A family man and writer of Westerns is confronted by his bloody past as an undercover operative during WWII when an old comrade shows up with a story about an upcoming assassination attempt.


From here we embark on a vivid first-person narrative about a man who seems to have successfully buried his essential killer nature beneath a veneer of conventional respectability only to find that it is much closer to the surface than he thought—and closer to his heart, too.


Over the course of the novel, Matt Helm (code name Eric) smoothly reverts to his old training, becoming more than a match for agents who haven’t had the hiatus from killing that he has.


This novel doesn’t treat the concept of the reawakened killer as seriously as the brilliant David Cronenberg film A History of Violence (and presumably the graphic novel upon which it was based and which I haven’t read), but author Donald Hamilton does squeeze plenty of pulpy goodness out of it, and Helm provides a terrific POV.


"The Death of a Citizen" (Greek)


Hamilton doesn’t flinch from the nastiness, either.


Donald Hamilton


Although the ugliest business takes place off-screen, the end is genuinely shocking when you consider the implications.


I’ve always heard good things about this series, and it’s off to a great start.


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