Matt Helm - The Ravagers Paperback – February 11, 2014

Through the years I purchased each of Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm books as they appeared in print. I even purchased the first, 'pre-Matt Helm' book (Assassins Have Starry Eyes) by Mr. Hamilton. Now that these books are appearing for the Kindle, I am purchasing each new re-release to save my aging, slightly 'tattered' paper back copies of the series.

Many of the Matt Helm books send Helm on a road trip. "The Ravagers" has Helm traveling along the Trans-Canada highway from Saskatchewan in western Canada to Nova Scotia, on the Atlantic Ocean, with stops mostly at campsites along the way. This is the kind of outdoorsy adventure that Donald Hamilton excels at.Matt's mission is an unusual one. He's tasked with helping a woman and her daughter evade other U.S. agents and flee the country with sensitive scientific documents that the woman has stolen from her scientist husband. The twist is, Helm knows that the documents are plants--designed to mislead the enemy. The other U.S. agents think the documents are authentic. The pursuit by the other agents must be real, to convince the enemy of the validity of the documents. So while Helm is to assist the woman and her daughter--Genevieve and Penny Drilling--he can't let them realize that he, too, is a U.S. agent. And under no circumstances may he allow the other U.S. agents to recover the documents."The Ravagers" has many of the traits characteristic of the Matt Helm thrillers. It features extensive local color as Hamilton vividly describes the Canadian countryside. It has Helm encountering a rather incompetent fellow agent from his own side (although in this case they are working at cross-purposes) and Helm allowing himself to be captured to get close to the enemy. And, of course, we get Helm's obligatory fashion critique.Helm meets a female agent on the case who is wearing slim black pants, a white silk shirt, and an open black vest. This seems to me to be a reasonable outfit for a female secret agent, who may need to spring into action at any time, but Helm doesn't approve. He tells us: "What the costume was supposed to represent wasn't immediately clear to me, but then there's a lot about women's fashions that I don't dig." Well, d'uh, Matt. You've only complained about women's fashions for eight books, so far. And we're still in the mid-'60s. Wait until women start wearing bell-bottoms.Since the Matt Helm books are written entirely in the first person, we're privy to Helm's innermost thoughts-which can go off on some odd tangents. He has some decidedly weird reactions to Penny. But without his foibles he would just be a killing machine, and the books wouldn't be nearly as entertaining. Still. Sometimes you think it might be better if he kept certain thoughts to himself."The Ravagers" is one of the more compelling books in the Matt Helm series. It moves along at a nice pace, throws you a few curveballs along the way, and Genevieve Drilling proves to be one of the more complex women to cross paths with Matt Helm.Stats for "The Ravagers": Helm goes to bed with two woman (about average for a Helmer), and there are five confirmed kills plus an unspecified number of crewmembers aboard a submarine.

I've been a fan of this series since Gold Medal first published it in the 60's. The novels hold up wonderfully well. The Ravagers is the best one reprinted to date -- not that any of its predecessors are less than terrific. As I've written before about the previous stories, here is a hard-boiled spy novel complete with twisty plotting and a strong central character -- Matt Helm a/k/a Eric. Tom Clancy's cover blurb is accurate, but beware: this is not techno-geek stuff. Helm's weapon of choice is a pocket knife. Anyway, The Ravagers is as good a place to start this series as any so stop reading my review and buy the book already.

I'm a big fan of the Matt Helm spy stories. I think this might be one of the best. Helm is a much tougher and smarter secret agent than Bond, and this story is very clever without being confusing. The Helm stories each stand on their own but if you want to read them in order, the first is Death of a Citizen.

One of the top three or four of the Matt Helm novels, this book has a complex plot, dark humor, and taut writing. I first read it more than fifty years ago, and it has held up very well.

One of the better, more memorable Helm books, The Ravagers shows the cold blooded side of Helms work. When you have a license to kill, sometimes things get out of hand.Helm is given a mission that sets him against other government agents. A trap has been set, and HELM has to guarantee it closes, no matter what cost. A mother and her 15 year old daughter are the bait, a cross country trip across Canada the scene, and a sickening acid attack on fellow agent Greg are the elements that makes this HELM adventure stand out.

This book finds Matt Helm having to abandon a mission to find out about the death of another agent and take over. Another very good Matt Helm story, can't wait for the next rerelease.

I've been waiting anxiously for this book to become available and now I've already finished it. I guess I'll have to wait until another Matt Helm novel is offered. There is no better fictional character than him. If publishers read these reviews they'll hurry to get the entire series released so readers like me can enjoy them.

A good book in a great spy series.

Another hard-hitting story that sees the intrepid and sometimes ruthless agent on top form, having to deal with not only communist spies, but his own side in the shape of rival government departments. Given that this and the other books in the series are not new, the level of violence (both described and implied) is sometimes fairly shocking.The plot involves an extended pursuit through the wilds of Canada, a setting which is well depicted by the author's economical but effective prose. And there are quite a few satisfying twists along the way, with motives of the various characters not always being what they first seemed. Alas, I found the biggest twist quite easy to see coming.If you have enjoyed any of the other books in this long-running series, you will enjoy this one. And if you are new to the world of Mr. Helm, this entry would make a suitable introduction - although ideally you would start by reading the origin story,  Matt Helm - Death of a Citizen .Highly recommended, and definitely worth the full five stars. Matt Helm - Death of a Citizen

Great speedy delivery and well on time. Good to see these books reprinted as they return one to the 60,s , one of my favourite periods. cheers Ewan