Simon Templar, a.k.a The Saint is one of the original gentlemen detectives. Created by Leslie Charteris in 1928 in Meet The Tiger, and followed by Enter The Saint in 1930, the Saint character would appear in nearly 100 novels. These inspired the classic 1962-1969 British TV series, and some of those scripts were then published as Saint novels themselves, written by Charteris and others.
Simon Templar is an anti-hero patterned after Robin Hood. Wealthy and charming, he moves equally through high society and gangster's dives, so elegantly at ease and at the same time so alert and dangerous.
In the tower suite of the Waldorf Astoria, he confers with his client, the wealthy William Valcross about the job of revenge on the men who killed his son. "You might do it son, you might clean up this rotten mess of crooks and grafters that's organizing itself to become the biggest thing this city of mine has ever had to fight." For the criminal underground has corrupted all levels of city government from leaders, to politicians and even police commissioners.
Valcross has tempted the Saint to New York with the fee of one million dollars (in 1935, no less) - to which Simon replies "I'd do it for nothing. When do we go?" With cool precision, the Saint begins to infiltrate darker side of New York from crooked gambling houses and dive bars, to the hideouts of the protected leaders. Armed with a list of names from the lowest rung to the "Big Fellow" himself, he is as quick with a quip as he is often brutal when dispatching the goons. As at ease winning $20,000 at a ritzy gambling club as he is escaping out a window after a shootout in a dockside mob den, the Saint is always one step ahead of the plot and plays by his own rules. There is also a side case of extortion and kidnapping wrapped up in the plot, cleanly revealed along the way.
That isn't to say it is all smooth sailing, the outbursts of violence and tension are often surprising, moving the tone from witty to deadly serious in a sentence. At one point, the Saint is captured and driven miles out into the New Jersey night to be killed without any sign of escape of reprieve. Knowing it's just a novel, I puzzle, how on earth is he going to get out of this one? And then, a truly surprising twist!
This was my first Saint novel, and my idea of him from the movies starring George Sanders was that of a gentleman, with an eye for the ladies and a clever comment. That he is, but at the heart of it, the Saint is in the end a mercenary, hired to do outlaw's work.
"Death," said the Saint, in a voice of terrible softness. "Death is my racket."
The Saint In New York, first published in 1935, is the 15th title in the series and is felt to be the most popular ~ the first Saint movie was based on it. It was a bestseller and established Charteris as a celebrity in the US. Still exciting and complex to read today, it is an enduring classic of crime detection. Very enjoyable!
1935 / Hardcover / 302 pages
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