Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime has shared word of the passing of author Donald Hamilton (1916-2006), creator of the Matt Helm series.
“In the last decade of his life, Don moved back to Sweden, where he’d been born, and lived there with his son, Gordon. He died peacefully, in his sleep, this past November. Gordon kept the fact of his death private until today, when he confirmed it in a phone conversation with me,” Ardai wrote. “We’ve lost a number of giants of the mystery field over the past few years – Mickey Spillane, Ed McBain and Richard S. Prather, among others – and Donald Hamilton is very much of that caliber. He sold more than 20 million books during his lifetime. But unlike Spillane, McBain and Prather, all of whom were widely remembered at the time of their death, Don’s passing has sadly gone unremarked.
BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE BETRAYERS by Donald Hamilton
• THE INTIMIDATORS by Donald Hamilton
• MURDERERS’ ROW by Donald Hamilton
• NIGHT WALKER by Donald Hamilton
• TEXAS FEVER by Donald Hamilton
• THE VANISHERS by Donald Hamilton
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One of the greats.
Will be sorely missed please for the love of my reading. Someone reissue all the Matt Helm books
Yes, reissue all his works. Hell, someone should FINALLY reprint The Big Country. Had a big Hollywood classic based on it and yet it’s never been reprinted at all.
Wow, I did not know. Both Don and my dad were yachtsmen. They became acquaintances when Don was cruising New England. I still have an autographed copy of The Mona Intercept in my office. I guess Don and Dad are finally back together.
I can’t tell you how sad that makes me. I started reading Donald Hamilton when I was 12-years old and never stopped loving his harder-tha-hard-boiled prose and to me, there’ll never be another character like Matt Helm, human guided missile, sent in to blow up things up when they’d gotten out of hand. Here’s to you, Mr. Hamilton!