Along the way I have skipped some writers with good
reputations for no particular reason. One of those is Donald
Hamilton. The other day I was in a surprisingly well-stocked
used bookstore in Culpepper, Virginia and picked up a copy of
Hamilton's LINE OF FIRE. It isn't a Matt Helm but it looks
damned interesting. Is this one of the better Hamilton
novels?
In the same store, I spotted a novel by James B. Hendryx
entitled BLOOD OF THE NORTH. Since I had just praised his
short stories on this list, I picked it up. Alas, the opening
was thick with dialect and the plot and characters so cliched
that I have to qualify my earlier praise. Hendryx wrote many
novels and perhaps some of them match his short stories. This
isn't one of them.
Richard A. Moore
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