The Frighteners (novel)

infobox Book |
name = The Frighteners
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = 1989 paperback edition
author = Donald Hamilton
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Matt Helm
genre = Spy novel
publisher = Ballantine|
release_date = June 1989
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 314 pp (first edition, paperback)
isbn = ISBN 0449145212 (first edition, paperback)
preceded_by = The Demolishers
followed_by = The Threateners

"The Frighteners" (not to be confused with the film of the same title) is a 1989 spy novel by Donald Hamilton, continuing the adventures of his creation, assassin Matt Helm.

Hamilton took a break from writing Matt Helm novels after this book; the next volume would not appear until 1992.

Plot summary

Helm is assigned to impersonate a rich oil baron in order to track down a shipment of weapons before it can be used to overthrow the Mexican government.

Matt Helm starts by taking the place of an oil millionaire, this is one of the assignments where Mac is helping another agency by loaning out the services of his agent - Matt Helm. As usual, Mac is not doing this from purely altruistic purposes and gives Matt his usual warning - "Don't trust anyone" in the beginning of the novel. Head of the agency borrowing Matt Helm, a man called Somerset, wants Matt to go into Maxico and help trace a shipment of illegal arms, supposedly being smuggled to be supplied to Mexican revolutionaries by the said millionaire Horace Hosmer Cody.

In the beginning of the novel, Cody is arrested by Somerset's people and Helm takes his place with a make up job that he thinks will fool noone and it doesn't. Almost all of the story takes place in Mexico where Matt once again runs into his old ally Ramon Solana-Ruiz of the Mexican security.

The novel is full of intrigue and typical Matt Helm style action. Most of the characters don't turn out to be what they are shown to be in the beginning of the story and many of them go through radical image change including some of the dead characters. Matt, of course, succeeds in the mission completing all of the objectives, sometimes with help from others.

External links

* [http://members.aol.com/MacBorden/fright.html Synopsis and summary]