A character who eventually saturates media can inspire derision on some readers. This novella is the first longer story involving the highly original character Simon Templar, the Saint. The Saint is glib, handsome and seemingly effortless in his quest to extract a pound of flesh from criminals ...
Alright, let me first say that I've avidly read my share of period adventure fiction, including loads of stuff from the 30s... and for what it's worth, I'd seen plenty of the 60s TV show. I thought I knew what to expect. In fact, I bought this book (under the title “The Last Hero”) along with 3 o...
The suave, debonair, clever and highly devious Simon Templar (AKA The Saint) comes to us in three novellas. They are collected together because they all feature an appearance by Scotland Yard Inspector Claude Eustace Teal, his primary nemesis amongst the rozzers, but, in truth, the persistent and...
Originally published on my blog here in February 2001.In the yellow jacketed editions of the Saint stories, the full series to date of publication is listed, in what seems to be chronological order. However, The Happy Highwayman is not in its correct place. Instead of following the early Second W...
Originally published on my blog here in May 2000.Another Saint book containing three stories of his adventures, and another Saint book whose original title fits its contents far better than the later on - the action may all take place in Southern England, but most of it is in fact outside London....
Sadly not one of the Leslie Charteris originals and it suffers for that as The Saint's creator is the master at delineating his character - others sometimes fall a little short. And so it is in this case as Templar masquerades as author Amos Klein and assists his, and the real Amos Klein's, kidna...
It’s impossible not to admire the sheer confidence and brio of this entry. Chateris takes the natural charm and exuberance of Simon Templar’s character and shines it outwards, so that the entire book is a sure footed exercise in unfettered and intrepid gusto. This is the indomitable hero to end a...
Originally published on my blog here in October 2000.After the anti-Fascist outburst of The Saint Plays with Fire, Leslie Charteris' next published Saint book is a collection of three stories (previously published in magazines) which are typical of an earlier period in the development of Simon Te...
Originally published on my blog here in January 2002.The ending of the first Saint TV series, the one starring Roger Moore, and the subsequent beginning of the second, starring Ian Ogilvy, brought some more changes to the much longer running series of books. This really began when Charteris reali...
Originally published on my blog here in April 2001.This novel, written towards the end of the war, is a typical Saint plot - beautiful woman in danger because of innocent involvement in a criminal scheme - set against the background of one of the most important industries for the war effort, rubb...
Originally published on my blog here in July 2001.This collection of Saint stories is a repeat of the idea of The Saint Meets His Match. There are nine stories, each with a different woman at the centre whose name is the title of their story. There are in fact more similarities than this architec...
Originally published on my blog here in March 1998.This is one of the later Saint books, based on the TV series (Roger Moore period) rather than coming before it. It contains two novellas, The Art Collectors and The Persistent Patriots; both were among the better TV episodes. However, like the ot...
Originally published on my blog here in February 2002.It is here that Leslie Charteris abandons, explicitly, the idea that Simon Templar's adventures are to be considered contemporary to the time of writing, though there is little in either which dates them to any particular period between the th...
Simon Templar, the Saint, Invades the Big AppleThis novel of the Saint is a period piece, harkening back to the days of the corrupt Tammany Hall where judges and politicians were bribed and paved the way of gangsters. Where police interviews used a bright sweating light and the 3rd degree. Where ...
Meet The Tiger (later retitled as The Saint Meets The Tiger, but my copy has the original title) is the first story to feature Simon Templar, alias The Saint. From this first entry, it seems clear that Charteris wasn't planning to give the Saint his own series; the novel is a self-contained story...
