Customer Reviews

The Saint: Five Complete Novels: The Man Who Was Clever, The Lawless Lady, The Saint Closes the Case, The Avenging Saint, The Saint vs. Scotland Yard

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Contains Enter the Saint (which is in turn made up of "The Man Who Was Clever" and "The Lawless Lady"), The Last Hero/The Saint Closes the Case, The Avenging Saint/Knight Templar, and The Saint vs Scotland Yard.

"Adventure came to him not so much because he sought it as because he brazenly expected it. He believed that life was full of adventure, and he went forward in the full blaze and surge of that belief." -- from The Last Hero

Starts with the 2nd of the Saint's adventures, which was the first where the Saint really began to hit his stride. (Charteris himself didn't like the first Saint book, Meet the Tiger, very much.) In those days, the Saint was accompanied not only by Patricia Holm, but by other wearers of the halo: Roger Conway (see esp. The Avenging Saint), Dicky Tremayne (see esp. Enter the Saint), Norman Kent (see esp. The Last Hero).

These books cover the first appearances of: Claude Eustace Teal of Scotland Yard, Rayt Marius the arms dealer, and Prince Rudolf.

Five complete Saint novels, unabridged? Not if the list of contents on the cover is accurate.

The Saint Closes the Case (original title The Last Hero) and The Avenging Saint (Knight Templar) are certainly complete novels, and what's more, two of the best. But "The Man Who Was Clever" and "The Lawless Lady" are merely two of the three stories in Enter the Saint, the other being "The Policeman with Wings". The Saint vs. Scotland Yard (original title The Holy Terror) is not a novel at all, but three more "novellas" of the same kind.

So this looks to me not like 5 complete Saint books, but 3.66.

I do like the picture on the cover, though.

If pushed to it, I would say that the best single-volume anthology of Saint stories is The First Saint Omnibus.

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

Leslie Charteris created one of the greatest spy characters ever with Simon Templar - who was always more interesting to me than James Bond. The disguises he uses are eternally fascinating, and the backstory with the boy at a cruel orphanage is what gives the character/story heart. Good suspenseful sequences also.

Now obviously, given that about 5 decades have gone by, the writing is quite dated and cumbersome. However, the overall story pretty much transcends the old fashioned writing. If you are looking for a modern version of an spy who uses disguises like THE SAINT, then try The Ninth Orphan which is an excellent read and very fast-paced.