The Poisoners

The Matt Helm Series, Book 13

By: Donald Hamilton, Claire Bloom - director

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

When Matt Helm is dispatched to Los Angeles to investigate the shooting of an agent, it wasn't just an assignment - it was personal.

To get the answers he wants means run-ins with two-bit hoods, a trio of beautiful women, a bunch of drug traffickers, and his old friend Mr. Soo, whose government has ideas about polluting America to death.

©2017 Donald Hamilton (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc. and Skyboat Media, Inc.

Darling?

I was born in the 40s. We did not use that term. Poor Matt Helm the women just won’t let him sleep alone. Many terms sound British. They must call each other darling. I’m not fond of it.

Smog alert!

Helm is sent to Los Angeles to question a female agent Annette O’Leary code name Ruby, who was beaten, interrogated, and shot twice left for dead in a parking lot. Helm got to the hospital but there was nothing to be done for the poor woman and several hours later she was pronounced dead. On his way back to the hotel, Helm was picked up and taken to a man named Frank Warful. Another man named Arthur Brown “the Basher” aka Lionel McConnell was there, hands tied, said to be the man who killed Ruby. Warful turned this man over to Helm, saying a mistake had been made, and Helm should consider the matter closed. Helm turned Arthur over to another agency, Charlott Devlin code name Charlie, for safekeeping and heads back to his hotel. He rescues a red-headed woman named Beverly Blaine aka Mary Zacolichek from two thugs. Beverly was running from Warful, who wanted her dead, admitting she had run into Ruby earlier. Two red-headed women, one killed by mistake. Beverly the real target, Ruby the mistake. All too convenient thought Helm. So much for the long setup of the story. Helm was sure Arthur had not pulled the trigger. Who had killed Ruby, and why? During the investigation of Ruby’s killer, Helm gets wind of a drug trafficking operation. Charlie was hot on this trail with the Mexican police. Helm was more interested in a syndicate trio and who else they may lead him to. Helm’s curiosity led him to yet another enemy plan in the works, totally outside of his mission but Helm can’t seem to resist things like this. He does fulfill his main mission but receives the stink-eye from Mac for involvement in the other incidents. This story was a little tame for a Matt Helm thriller, not so much violence, rather more detective work on Helm’s part. It was still an interesting tale all-in-all.

This is the beginning of better

I’ve always loved the Matt Helm series. As I recall most of the paperbacks were about the same length until this point when they started getting more involved and interesting. I look forward to getting the rest of the series on audio.

Another great Matt Helm adventure!

The Matt Helm series is pretty consistently great, but it does have highs and lows within that consistency. The Poisoners is one of the good ones, for sure, though not among the very best. I wouldn't recommend starting with this one simply because I would recommend listening to this series in order, as characters do tend to return and die off, and events from earlier books are sometimes referenced. For those who might know the character only from the Dean Martin movies, this is not really that Matt Helm. The Helm of the books is totally serious, and the books themselves are brutal and hard-boiled. Fans of Jack Reacher or Adam Hall's Quiller would definitely enjoy Helm.

I loved seeing Matt Helm in Los Angeles (a city he doesn't enjoy), before he moves south to more familiar territory in Mexico. The (returning) villain's plot is a good one, and there's a good twist on what we think it is in the final moments. The new characters are all well-drawn, and I expect (and hope) to see a few of the ones who survived return.

Once again, Stefan Rudnicki does a truly stellar job giving voice to Matt Helm. He's perfect for the first-person narration, and has the character's competence and droll humor down pat. Eve if you've read these books before, I recommend listening to the audio series for what Rudnicki brings to the character. I wish these audiobooks came out more often, but I'm glad that they're still at least rolling out ever six months or so. Please finish the series, Audible! If you released all the rest at once, I would buy them all and tear through them--then start again.

NEVER A DULL MOMENT

Gratifying action and, if repetitive plotting, at least the characters are always interesting or entertaining. This is #13 so I guess Don can be forgiven for repeating himself now and then since the formula obviously works. This is a problem when binge listening since they all start to take on an overall oneness and it gets hard to notice the major differences and probably there aren't any. But the narration is truly great and there is something comforting in a successful formula.