Customer Reviews

The Threateners (A Matt Helm book)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Donald Hamilton once again weaves an intricate tale of intrique, deceit, and treachery as Matt Helm returns to an action packed thriller pitting him against drug lords and members of his own government. With Hamilton writing the story, you just can't lay the book down until the last page is read.

While recuperating from a previous mission, Matt Helm finds himself thrust into an all too familiar role. Thinking himself free of past entanglements, Matt is once again called upon to teach various no-gooders, including a rival government agency, that it doesn't pay to mess with one of 'Mac's' people. This fast paced and highly readable 26th in the Matt Helm series contains all the elements which have made Matt Helm a fan favorite for over 25 years! Action, Adventure and, of course, the protagonists own fallibility make Matt Helm the archetypal All-American hero. Cudos to Donald Hamilton, for keeping this series as fresh and topical as the day he started writing it!

Action-wise, other books in the series are to be preferred, hence the four stars.
But today's news includes whining by NATO general McChrystal on "Afghanistan now has Drug Cartels", and then there's the recent whining about Michael Jackson's death from a drug he CRAVED. In other words, how much of today's political landscape is linked to governments maintaining the medical-guild's monopoly on drugs, thus creating the coevolutionary arms-race between the drug-cartels and the drug-enforcement-agencies ?
These new items recalled memory of this book's final scene - the game-changing-paradigm-shift is delivered towards the end. It doesn't spoil the plot to mention the lecture by the Drug Czar as his dog sits patiently by his side, while a tempting array of viands etc is laid out on the opulent dinner table. This particular breed of dog can control its urges, it doesn't leap onto the table. Googling (( dog "hard mouth" )) confirms that especially among retrievers ability-to-control-urges is a selectable trait. Decriminalizing drugs would tend to select for those with such an ability to resist that temptation, to my mind a nice kind of selection - vs the MAGNITUDE of the ever-growing-drug-cartel-problem, which without such a paradigm-shift stretches into the indefinite future...