''The Silencers'' is the title of a 1962 spy novel by

Donald Hamilton Donald Bengtsson Hamilton (March 24, 1916 – November 20, 2006) was an American writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction, but also crime ...

, the fourth in a series of books featuring assassin

Matt Helm Matt Helm is a fictional character created by American author Donald Hamilton (1916-2006). Helm is a U.S. government counter-agent, a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary sense of t ...

Plot summary

When a female agent in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

is killed before Helm can complete his mission to extract her, he finds himself teamed up with the woman's sister as he fights to save the lives of a number of scientists and

Congressmen A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

Film adaptation

''The Silencers'' has the distinction of being the first Matt Helm novel adapted as a film. The movie version was released in 1966 and starred

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool". M ...

as Helm. Rather than follow Hamilton's storyline, the filmmakers took elements of the plot, combined it with elements of the first Helm book, ''

Death of a Citizen ''Death of a Citizen'' is a 1960 spy novel by Donald Hamilton, and was the first in a long-running series of books featuring the adventures of assassin Matt Helm. The title refers to the metaphorical death of peaceful citizen and family man Matt ...

'', and cast the story in a comedic vein, spoofing the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

film franchise.

External links

Synopsis and summary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silencers, The 1962 American novels American novels adapted into films Matt Helm novels Novels set in Mexico