It's been a while since I read a Matt Helm book, so Gold
Medal month makes a good chance to get back to working my way
through them. Today I read the eighth in the series, THE
RAVAGERS (1964, #d1673).
Canadians on the list, especially those east of Alberta, will
have a special interest in this one: it starts in
Saskatchewan and ends in Nova Scotia. Matt Helm vists Brandon
and Montreal, drives over the north shore of Lake Superior,
and never really has anything nice to say about Canadians. I
think Donald Hamilton once got stuck around some annoying
drivers on the Trans-Canada and wanted to get back at
us.
The story's an interesting one: a woman is planning to go to
Nova Scotia to turn some secret papers over to Russians on a
boat. Helm's boss Mac tells him his job is to make sure she
gets through. The papers are phony. The problem is that other
US government agencies don't know they're fake, and they're
going to try to stop her. She, her daughter and Helm drive
across the country, dealing with spies and escaped prisoners,
and there are lots of twists and turns as Helm tries to make
sure she makes it, which is the opposite of his usual
assignment. There's a sense of non-stop motion to the book:
they only stop to sleep at night and even then the action
doesn't flag.
We've talked about Helm's professionalism, and it's important
in this book. In one tense situation he holds back from
killing a fellow American agent, and that causes trouble.
Later Mac lectures him, and at the end the enemy agent
appeals to his ruthlessness, knowing that he's as tough and
cold as they come.
The other three Gold Medals I've read this month were all 160
pages long, which is five 32-page signatures. This was 144
pages, which would be 4 x 32 + 16. "144 pages of tight, fast
action," is how I described Gold Medals to a friend, and this
is one of those.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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