''The Wrecking Crew'' is a

spy novel Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelligenc ...

written 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 ...

and first published in 1960. It was the second novel featuring Hamilton's ongoing protagonist, counter-agent and 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 ...

. In this book Hamilton continued the hard-headed and gritty realism he had built up around Helm in the first novel of the series, ''

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 H ...

.''

Film adaptation

''The Wrecking Crew'' was loosely adapted in 1969 as a

motion picture A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

starring

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 Matt Helm. This was the fourth and final instalment in the commercially popular but critically derided film series, which took great liberties with Hamilton's original serious novels, turning them into campy comedies.

Sequel

Hamilton's final published Matt Helm novel, ''

The Damagers ''The Damagers'', published in 1993, is a spy novel by Donald Hamilton, and the twenty-seventh volume of the adventures of government assassin Matt Helm. Hamilton had launched the series in 1960 with ''Death of a Citizen'' and this novel is a sequ ...

'' from 1993, is a sequel to this book, featuring the son of this novel's villain as its antagonist.

External links

The synopsis and a summary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrecking Crew (Novel), The 1960 American novels American novels adapted into films Matt Helm novels