The Intriguers

Donald Hamilton (1916–2006) was the creator of Matt Helm, star of twenty-seven novels that have sold more than twenty million copies worldwide. He was born in Uppsala, Sweden, attended the University of Chicago, and served in the US Naval Reserve. His writing career began in 1946 with short stories for Collier’s and the Saturday Evening Post. His first novel was Date with Darkness, published in 1947, and altogether he published thirty-eight novels. The first Matt Helm novel, Death of a Citizen, was originally published in 1960, at the height of the Cold War.

Stefan Rudnicki first became involved with audiobooks in 1994. Now a Grammy-winning audiobook producer, he has worked on more than five thousand audiobooks as a narrator, writer, producer, or director. He has narrated more than nine hundred audiobooks. A recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, he was presented the coveted Audie Award for solo narration in 2005, 2007, and 2014, and was named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices in 2012.

Claire Bloom, CBE, is an English film and stage actress, known for leading roles in plays such as Streetcar Named Desire, A Doll’s House, and Long Day’s Journey into Night, along with nearly sixty films and countless television roles, during a career spanning over six decades. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 Queen’s birthday honors for services to drama.