Customer Reviews

Alias the Saint

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Three more stories from the early days of the Saint.

"The Story of a Dead Man" finds him turning businessman for very unorthodox reasons.

"The Impossible Crime" is, among other things, the author's offering in that favourite genre of detective fiction, the Locked Room Murder Mystery.

In "The National Debt", in the identity of Professor Rameses Smith-Smyth-Smythe (!), he takes on some 20th century pirates operating from an inn in South Wales. For those interested in such trivia, this story features the first appearance of Basher Tope, later to materialise in The Holy Terror and finally in Once More the Saint.

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

This review applies to the 1945 Jacobs edition alone.

Very confusingly, it is (I think I'm correct in saying) not the standard version of "Alias the Saint", which contains the following three stories:

The Story of a Dead Man

The Impossible Crime

The National Debt.

The Jacobs edition appears to comprise two stories only, both normally being found in Featuring the Saint, but missing the latter's "The Man Who Could Not Die".

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.

The 1950 Avon edition, very confusingly, is (I think I'm correct in saying) not the standard version of "Alias the Saint", which contains the following three stories:

The Story of a Dead Man

The Impossible Crime

The National Debt.

The Avon edition is a hybrid, with two stories only:

The National Debt

The Man Who Could Not Die,

the latter normally being found in Featuring the Saint.

In "The National Debt", in the identity of Professor Rameses Smith-Smyth-Smythe (!), the Saint takes on some 20th century pirates operating from an inn in South Wales. For those interested in such trivia, this story features the first appearance of Basher Tope, later to materialise in The Holy Terror and finally in Once More the Saint.

In "The Man Who Could Not Die" he avenges the murder of a friend. This is a strange, intense story, featuring a moody and irresponsible Saint; and I don't like it much. This, with the confusing (and reduced!) contents, leads me to allot three stars instead of five.

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