Editing Matt Helm (section)

==The character and the books==
Published between 1960 and 1993, the 27 books in the series portrayed Helm, who acquired the code name "Eric" during his secret wartime assignments, as jaded, ruthless, pragmatic, and competent.  The series was noted for its between-books [[continuity (fiction)|continuity]], which was somewhat rare for the genre at the time  In the later books, Helm's origins as a man of action in [[World War II]] disappeared and he became an [[floating timeline|apparently ageless]] character, a common fate of long-running fictional heroes.

The first book in the series, ''[[Death of a Citizen]],'' takes place in the summer of 1958, 13 years after the end of the war. In the book, other characters describe Helm as verging on middle age and apparently soft and out of shape, although no specific age for him is given. In the next story, which apparently takes place in the summer of 1959, a hostile agent from a rival American spy organization taunts Helm as a shopworn 36-year-old and clearly over the hill as a physical specimen. Later in the book, Helm himself says that he is 36 years old. Writer [[Hayford Peirce]] examined the issue of Helm's age, and found this figure to be improbably young given the information about Helm's background in ''Death of a Citizen.''<ref name=Peirce>{{cite web |last1=Peirce |first1=Hayford |author-link1=Hayford Peirce |title=Some Thoughts on Matt Helm's Birthday |url=http://www.matthelmbooks.com/agetheory.html |website=Matt Helm Books|publisher=Don Winans |access-date=May 13, 2015 |date=2000}}</ref>  Peirce postulated that Helm was actually several years older than the 36 years mentioned in ''[[The Wrecking Crew (novel)|The Wrecking Crew]]'' and that he was probably born around 1918.<ref name=Peirce/> By ''[[The Betrayers]]'', the tenth book, the age issue vanishes completely.<ref name=Peirce/>

Critic [[Anthony Boucher]] wrote: "Donald Hamilton has brought to the spy novel the authentic hard realism of [[Dashiell Hammett]]; and his stories are as compelling, and probably as close to the sordid truth of espionage, as any now being told."<ref>''Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection,'' compiled by [[Chris Steinbrunner]] and [[Otto Penzler]], New York, 1976, page 195.</ref> [[Golden Age of Detective Fiction|Golden Age]] mystery writer [[John Dickson Carr]], who began reviewing books for ''[[Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine]]'' in 1969, "found Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm to be 'my favorite secret agent,'" wrote Carr's biographer, noting that Hamilton's books had little in common with Carr's.  "The explanation may lie in Carr's comment that in espionage novels he preferred Matt Helm's '[[Cloud cuckoo land|cloud-cuckooland]]'. Carr never valued realism in fiction."<ref>''John Dickson Carr, The Man Who Explained Miracles,'' by [[Douglas G. Greene]], New York, 1995, page 443.</ref>
===List of books===
<!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: [[Image:Death of a Citizen Gold Medal 957 first edition.jpg|thumb|right|200px|1960s ''[[Death of a Citizen]]'' was the first Matt Helm novel.]] -->

(all by Donald Hamilton)
#''[[Death of a Citizen]]'' (1960)
#''[[The Wrecking Crew (novel)|The Wrecking Crew]]'' (1960)
#''[[The Removers]]'' (1961)
#''[[The Silencers (novel)|The Silencers]]'' (1962)
#''[[Murderers' Row (novel)|Murderers' Row]]'' (1962)
#''[[The Ambushers (novel)|The Ambushers]]'' (1963)
#''[[The Shadowers]]'' (1964)
#''[[The Ravagers (novel)|The Ravagers]]'' (1964)
#''[[The Devastators (Hamilton novel)|The Devastators]]'' (1965)
#''[[The Betrayers]]'' (1966)
#''[[The Menacers]]'' (1968)
#''[[The Interlopers (novel)|The Interlopers]]'' (1969)
#''[[The Poisoners (Hamilton novel)|The Poisoners]]'' (1971)
#''[[The Intriguers]]'' (1972)
#''[[The Intimidators]]'' (1974)
#''[[The Terminators (novel)|The Terminators]]'' (1975)
#''[[The Retaliators (novel)|The Retaliators]]'' (1976)
#''[[The Terrorizers]]'' (1977)
#''[[The Revengers (novel)|The Revengers]]'' (1982)
#''[[The Annihilators (novel)|The Annihilators]]'' (1983)
#''[[The Infiltrators]]'' (1984)
#''[[The Detonators]]'' (1985)
#''[[The Vanishers]]'' (1986)
#''[[The Demolishers]]'' (1987)
#''[[The Frighteners (novel)|The Frighteners]]'' (1989)
#''[[The Threateners]]'' (1992)
#''[[The Damagers]]'' (1993)
#''[[The Dominators (novel)|The Dominators]]'' – unpublished. Hamilton finished this novel in the late 1990s, and was reportedly revising it in preparation for seeking a publisher in mid-2002.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://members.aol.com/MacBorden/update080202.htm |title=Archived copy |access-date=2005-05-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051123101714/http://members.aol.com/MacBorden/update080202.htm |archive-date=2005-11-23 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

All of Hamilton's Matt Helm novels were first published in the United States by [[Fawcett Publications]] under their [[Gold Medal Books|Gold Medal]] [[imprint (trade name)|imprint]].

These titles have since been republished by [[Titan Books]].