The Terminators

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The Terminators
The Terminators.jpg
First paperback edition, April 1975
Author Donald Hamilton
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Series Matt Helm
Genre Spy novel
Publisher Fawcett Publications
Publication date
April 1975
Media typePrint (Paperback)
ISBN 0-449-13214-5
Preceded by The Intimidators  
Followed by The Retaliators  

The Terminators by Donald Hamilton is a spy novel first published in April 1975. It was the sixteenth episode in the Matt Helm series and was the first of the Helm books to portray him, on its cover, as a long-haired, side-burned citizen of the 1970s. This image was subsequently used for reprinted editions of a number of the earlier stories.

Donald Bengtsson Hamilton 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 fiction and westerns, such as The Big Country. He is best known for his long-running Matt Helm series (1960-1993), which chronicles the adventures of an undercover counter-agent/assassin working for a secret American government agency. The noted 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."

Matt Helm is a fictional character created by author Donald Hamilton. He 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 the term as used in spy thrillers.

Plot summary

A longtime friend of Mac, Helm's boss, blames Big Oil for his wife's death aboard their modest yacht; in retaliation, he wants Helm's secretive, and murderous, agency to make trouble for an international oil company. Mac assigns Helm to get to the bottom of this request — and to "take care of" his friend.

Big Oil

Big Oil is a name used to describe the world's six or seven largest publicly traded oil and gas companies, also known as supermajors. The term emphasizes their economic power and influence on politics, particularly in the United States. Big oil is often associated with the fossil fuels lobby and also used to refer to the industry as a whole in a pejorative or derogatory manner.


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