Customer Reviews (1)

Saint Saga #5.8 -- sort of
This, very confusingly, is (I think I'm correct in saying) not the standard version of "Featuring the Saint", which contains the following three stories:

The Logical Adventure
The Wonderful War
The Man Who Could Not Die

The Black edition appears to comprise two stories only, but both from Alias the Saint; and is missing the first story therein, "The Story of a Dead Man".

The edition, then, is neither fish nor fowl, and bad value besides.

Three stars for the stories.

P.S. For a list of -- and discussion of -- all Charteris's Saint books, see my So You'd Like To... Guide. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Saint Saga #08
"The Holy Terror" (aka "The Saint vs. Scotland Yard) is one my favourites of the books of (usually three) Saint "novelettes", the other being The Misfortunes of Mr. Teal.

In "The Inland Revenue", Simon has to deal with equally implacable adversaries: a blackmailer known only as the Scorpion, and His Majesty's Inspector of Taxes ("Not that there's a great deal of difference.The same threatening letters, the same merciless bleeding of the honest toiler...").

"The Million Pound Day" - which would have been around 1931, of course - would cost at least a hundred million now, a sum certainly enough to prompt the associated shenanigans, in which the Saint rescues a man from torture and finds himself involved in a plot to swindle the Bank of Italy.

And "The Melancholy Journey of Mr. Teal" finds the Saint for once unable to talk his way out of trouble, and on the brink of being arrested - leading gracefully into the next book, one of the best of all Saint adventures, a romp through a Germany that was not yet quite Hitler's.

Incidentally, those who have been clubbed to the ground by O-Level French (or whatever the equivalent is nowadays) may doubt that anyone - in addition to being able to box, throw knives and play the banjo - could really speak as many languages as the Saint does.But there are such people: Sir Richard Burton (the explorer, not the actor) apparently absorbed languages like blotting paper, being able to pass the brutal Civil Service translators' exams after six months.Charteris himself was a polyglot, later writing a textbook on Spanish (which I would love to get hold of).

Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) reportedly spoke eighteen languages; but as to whether he could play the banjo, we are not informed.

P.S. For a list of -- and discussion of -- all Charteris's Saint books, see my So You'd Like To... Guide ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Saint Saga #12
"The Misfortunes of Mr. Teal" (aka "The Saint in London" aka "The Saint in England"*) is one my favourites of the books of (usually three) Saint "novelettes", the other being The Holy Terror.

Chief among its pleasures is the finale to the battle of wits between Simon and Rayt Marius, the unscrupulous arms-merchant of The Last Hero and Knight Templar.Marius, learning that he has only a few months to live, has devised a scheme, worthy of his evil genius, for revenging himself on the Saint: he has written his memoirs, detailing all the criminal (indeed, treasonous) transactions he has had with members of British government and industry, and sent the resulting opus to Simon.

"At the same time as this book is sent to you, there will be sent, to the gentlemen most conspicuously mentioned in these notes, letters which will inform them into whose hands the book has fallen.After reading it yourself, you will see that this cannot fail to cause them great perturbation.

"Nevertheless, while it would be simple for you to allay their alarm and assure your own safety from molestation, I cannot foresee that a man such as I recall you to be would so tamely surrender such a unique opportunity to apply moral pressure towards the righting of what you consider to be wrongs.

"I therefore hope to leave behind me the makings of a most diverting contest [...] And you will understand, I am sure, my dear Mr. Templar, that I can hardly be blamed for sincerely trusting that these gentlemen, or their agents, will succeed where I have failed."

This story is also notable for introducing the Runyonesque American gangster Hoppy Uniatz, veteran of Prohibition who drinks whisky like lemonade, the Saint's companion in so many later adventures.

That Charteris manages to make Hoppy simultaneously menacing, comical and believable (and even at times sympathetic!) is an amazing feat, but he pulls it off - in part because of a firm grasp of Transatlantic mores and idiom, much better than (for example) Ian Fleming's.

The other stories are just as skilled; there is little point in detailing the plots, and again the familiar friends - Pat, Orace, Claud Eustace - are here.

One of the best books in the series.

*Singularly uninformatively, since all but 4 of the first 21 Saint books are set in England, and most of those are set in London.

P.S. For a list of -- and discussion of -- all Charteris's Saint books, see my So You'd Like To... Guide. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Saint Saga #11
Fifteen lightweight but entertaining short stories of the Saint, wherein mysteries are unravelled, swindlers swindled, and many pints of beer consumed.

"The Export Trade", despite its inclusion here, must be set before the previous book, Once More the Saint, since the Saint has at this point never heard of the Green Cross bunch, who figure prominently in that opus.

"The Unblemished Bootlegger" is notable for introducing Simon's friend Peter Quentin, who reappears many times thereafter; "The Unpopular Landlord", my favourite, features not only Peter but old stalwarts Roger Conway and Monty Hayward; and Patricia Holm and Claud Eustace Teal are never far away.

Fans of Georgette Heyer or Damon Runyon (for example) will readily concede that it's not the plot but the style that counts; and the same certainly applies to Leslie Charteris.

P.S. For a list of -- and discussion of -- all Charteris's Saint books, see my So You'd Like To... Guide.

Saint Saga #11
Fifteen lightweight but entertaining short stories of the Saint, wherein mysteries are unravelled, swindlers swindled, and many pints of beer consumed.

"The Export Trade", despite its inclusion here, must be set before the previous book, Once More the Saint, since the Saint has at this point never heard of the Green Cross bunch, who figure prominently in that opus.

"The Unblemished Bootlegger" is notable for introducing Simon's friend Peter Quentin, who reappears many times thereafter; "The Unpopular Landlord", my favourite, features not only Peter but old stalwarts Roger Conway and Monty Hayward; and Patricia Holm and Claud Eustace Teal are never far away.

Fans of Georgette Heyer or Damon Runyon (for example) will readily concede that it's not the plot but the style that counts; and the same certainly applies to Leslie Charteris.

P.S. For a list of -- and discussion of -- all Charteris's Saint books, see my So You'd Like To... Guide. ... Read more