Death of a Citizen [Paperback]

Donald Hamilton (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Fawcett Crest (1970)
• ASIN: B001584ZA2
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,272,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Matt Helm Novel, March 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Death of a Citizen (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first of the Matt Helm novels. It gives a lot of background on Helm, and shows how he was forced out of retirement after 15 years to return to work for the nameless secret organization for whom he killed Nazis in WWII. Although this is in the espionage genre, the writing owes more to the hardboiled school of Dashiell Hammett. If you saw any of the sixties films with Dean Martin, you have no idea what the books are like. There is no spoofing here, and the prose is lean and crisp. This is the place to start if you want to begin a new series from the sixties, or just read one of the Helm books.

Many people believe that one of Ian Fleming's strengths was as a travel writer. Similarly, Hamilton is strong as an outdoors writer. Warning: Hamilton is as sexist as Fleming, but less racist and fascist.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still a favorite, still a classic, August 20, 1999

By 

Michael Morrow "ghek_the_kaldane" (West Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death of a Citizen (Mass Market Paperback)

Death of a Citizen is the first of a 27 novel series about Matt Helm...and a threatened #28 The Dominators (hopefully he will finish it.) For a full list of the series (each book has its own report) and other books written by Donald Hamilton (Line of Fire is my fav). Drop by htp://members.aol.com/MacBorden/ "Matt Helm: The Unofficial Homepage"... In DOAC, Matt cain't escape from his past, so he does what he does best..tackle it head on! Mild Mannered photographer hasn't forgotten a bit of his skills that saw him through many missions behind enemy lines in WWII...just a little trouble figureing out who his friends are...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, well written and hard edged spy novel, December 25, 2008

By 

CJ - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death of a Citizen (Mass Market Paperback)

The first thing that struck me about this book was how skillful the author was. He places you in the middle of a cocktail party at the start of the book and in several short chapters gives you much of Matt Helm's background, or at least the essential details.

There is a great atmosphere of charged violence in this. It reads very convincingly, and has a brutal sensuality to it that pulls the reader along. This strikes me as more realistic than Bond, and certainly recommended for people who want a very readable, tough piece of spy fiction.

Sherlock Holmes and the Flying Zombie Death Monkeys