Donald Hamilton’s The Ambushers

The Ambushers, published in 1963, was the sixth of Donald Hamilton’s Matt Helm spy thrillers.

Donald Hamilton (1916-2006) was an American writer who worked in various genres but is best known for his spy novels. The Matt Helm books bear no resemblance to the Matt Helm movies (which are great fun in their own way). Matt Helm is a US Government assassin.

It’s important to note that it’s best to read the early Matt Helm novels in publication order. It’s certain essentially to start with the first book in the series, Death of a Citizen, which gives vitally important backstory information that explains Helm’s motivations.

The Matt Helm novels definitely belong to the gritty realist school of spy fiction. These are hardboiled spy thrillers. Helm is not James Bond - he’s much more ruthless. He doesn’t particularly like being a secret agent but he carries out his assignments with brutal efficiency. He is not a thug. He has complicated feelings about the job. But if ordered to kill he will do so without hesitation.

He also has a pragmatic approach when it comes to other American agents. If it’s necessary to sacrifice an American agent in order to achieve the mission Matt won’t like it but he’ll do it. They’re professionals. They knew the risks when they signed on. It’s a tough dirty game.

The Ambushers begins in a small South American republic. The ruling regime of President Avila is fairly corrupt and fairly vicious but they’re America’s allies. Helm’s assignment is to assassinate the rebel leader Santos. The rebels might well have justifiable reasons for opposing Avila’s regime but in the world of espionage and intelligence right and wrong don’t matter. The US Government wants Santos dead.

Helm finds himself with a secondary mission - to rescue Sheila. Sheila is an American agent. Her job had been to get herself into the good graces of Santos by getting herself into his bed. It all went badly wrong. Sheila did however discover something, something concealed in the jungle. Matt discovers it as well. It’s a nasty surprise.

There was another surprise for Matt. He certainly did not expect to see von Sachs among Santos’s cronies. His presence there may be connected to Sheila’s disturbing discovery.

Matt thinks his mission is over but his boss Mac has a new mission for him and he doesn’t like the sound of it. He has also acquired a partner - Sheila. Sheila is all messed up after having been held captive in the jungle for months. She was starved and tortured and it’s strongly implied that she was raped. The intelligence agency’s doctor figures she’ll take a year to recover, if she ever recovers. She tells Matt she wants to be his partner on the new mission. Matt understands. The last thing Sheila wants is to be treated like a victim. He persuades Mac to let her go along.

The objective is to kill von Sachs. First they have to find him. They have some leads - some people who may have been in contact with him. Matt has no way of knowing whether these people are von Sachs’ associates or his enemies. He therefore has no way to know if he should consider them to be allies or enemies. If they’re allies, they may have their own agendas.

So there’s plenty of potential for just about everybody to be double-crossed by everybody else. And in fact there are double-crosses aplenty.

Matt also has to worry about Sheila - will she crack up and let him down?

The Matt Helm novels are excellent hard-edged spy thrillers and this is a good one and it’s highly recommended although I do slightly prefer The Silencers and Murderers’ Row.

I’ve reviewed most of the previous Matt Helm novels - Death of a Citizen, The Wrecking Crew, The Silencers and Murderers’ Row. They’re all excellent.