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The Saint #13
The Saint Intervenes
Fourteen short stories featuring The Saint:
The Ingenious Colonel - The Saint meets up with a Colonel who has developed a con game to predict the winner of horse races. The Saint places his bets and manipulates the Colonel's system to his own benefit.
The Unfortunate Financier - A financier with the unfortunate name of Wallingford Titus Oates has a scheme to manipulate stock values. He is also a rabid stamp collector, and The Saint uses a rare stamp to lure him to his come-uppence.
The Newdick Helicopter - Oscar Newdick has supposedly invented an improved version of helicopter, and teases The Saint into investing in it.
The Prince of Cherkessia - The Prince is in London supervising creation of a fabulous jeweled crown. Inspector Teal takes measures to ensure it is not stolen, but The Saint gets away with it anyway.
The Treasure of Turk's Lane - Turk's Lane is a quaint little London back street which time has passed by. Now a developer is buying up all the property to gentrify the street with moden businesses and apartments, and The Saint does not take that lightly.
The Sleepless Knight - Truck drivers are being pushed past their limits and causing accidents. The Saint teaches the owner of the trucking line, Sir Melvin Flager, what being a driver is really like.
* The Uncritical Publisher - Herbert Parstone is a "vanity printer" who prints small runs of books despite his wild promises of promoting their sale. The Saint traps him into printing something not quite legal.
* The Noble Sportsman - Maurice Vould has been receiving threatening letters. The Saint and Inspector Teal attend his house party, but he is murdered under their very noses.
The Damsel in Distress - Domenick Naccaro brings his unmarried daughter and her child to The Saint, and hires him to help persuade the baby's father to do the right thing and marry her. If The Saint can grab him, Domenick will do the persuading - with a bar of soap.
The Loving Brothers - Brothers Walter and Willie Kinsall never got along, and never tired of cheating each other. Now their father has died, and there are several versions of his will floating around. The Saint manages to purchase (!) the latest one.
The Tall Timber - The Saint encounters a Ponzi scheme: Sumner Journ gets people to invest in his African timber production. But it takes ten years for his trees to grow up and make a return on their investment.
The Art Photographer - Photographer Gilbert Tanfold sells "saucy" photos of Parisian ladies, while looking for potential blackmail victims. He traps The Saint into a compromising pose, but his blackmail scheme backfires.
The Man Who Liked Toys - Lewis Enstone is shot to death in a locked room. It appears to be suicide to Inspector Teal, but The Saint knows it is murder.
The Mixture as Before - Louie Fallon shows The Saint a contraption which supposedly can produce artificial diamonds. The Saint tries it himself, and to Fallon's surprise, it works!
* some editions omit the stories "The Uncritical Publisher" and "The Noble Sportsman"
RM
The Ingenious Colonel - The Saint meets up with a Colonel who has developed a con game to predict the winner of horse races. The Saint places his bets and manipulates the Colonel's system to his own benefit.
The Unfortunate Financier - A financier with the unfortunate name of Wallingford Titus Oates has a scheme to manipulate stock values. He is also a rabid stamp collector, and The Saint uses a rare stamp to lure him to his come-uppence.
The Newdick Helicopter - Oscar Newdick has supposedly invented an improved version of helicopter, and teases The Saint into investing in it.
The Prince of Cherkessia - The Prince is in London supervising creation of a fabulous jeweled crown. Inspector Teal takes measures to ensure it is not stolen, but The Saint gets away with it anyway.
The Treasure of Turk's Lane - Turk's Lane is a quaint little London back street which time has passed by. Now a developer is buying up all the property to gentrify the street with moden businesses and apartments, and The Saint does not take that lightly.
The Sleepless Knight - Truck drivers are being pushed past their limits and causing accidents. The Saint teaches the owner of the trucking line, Sir Melvin Flager, what being a driver is really like.
* The Uncritical Publisher - Herbert Parstone is a "vanity printer" who prints small runs of books despite his wild promises of promoting their sale. The Saint traps him into printing something not quite legal.
* The Noble Sportsman - Maurice Vould has been receiving threatening letters. The Saint and Inspector Teal attend his house party, but he is murdered under their very noses.
The Damsel in Distress - Domenick Naccaro brings his unmarried daughter and her child to The Saint, and hires him to help persuade the baby's father to do the right thing and marry her. If The Saint can grab him, Domenick will do the persuading - with a bar of soap.
The Loving Brothers - Brothers Walter and Willie Kinsall never got along, and never tired of cheating each other. Now their father has died, and there are several versions of his will floating around. The Saint manages to purchase (!) the latest one.
The Tall Timber - The Saint encounters a Ponzi scheme: Sumner Journ gets people to invest in his African timber production. But it takes ten years for his trees to grow up and make a return on their investment.
The Art Photographer - Photographer Gilbert Tanfold sells "saucy" photos of Parisian ladies, while looking for potential blackmail victims. He traps The Saint into a compromising pose, but his blackmail scheme backfires.
The Man Who Liked Toys - Lewis Enstone is shot to death in a locked room. It appears to be suicide to Inspector Teal, but The Saint knows it is murder.
The Mixture as Before - Louie Fallon shows The Saint a contraption which supposedly can produce artificial diamonds. The Saint tries it himself, and to Fallon's surprise, it works!
* some editions omit the stories "The Uncritical Publisher" and "The Noble Sportsman"
RM
302 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1934
31 people are currently reading
167 people want to read
About the author
Leslie Charteris
586 books161 followersBorn Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, Leslie Charteris was a half-Chinese, half English author of primarily mystery fiction, as well as a screenwriter. He was best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint."
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 4, 2023
It's always good to go back to a Saint story for some guaranteed entertainment. This collection, of fourteen Saintly adventures, sees Simon Templar & his gang of friends out con the conmen seventy years before the BBC TV series Hustle even appeared on our screens. Charteris has a wonderful lightness of touch in his work, but once in a while he'll surprise the reader with a darker tale. In this collection the tale of The Sleepless Knight is that story. It is, & has been for a long time, one of my favourite Saint stories & it involves Templar punishing the owner of a haulage truck company for the shameful treatment of his staff. Watch for the sign of The Saint. He will be back!
January 10, 2021
I am slowly reading my way through the Saint series for the first time. It is amazing how much Leslie Charteris published starting at such a young age. I prefer the stories to their radio adaptation with Vincent Price. There, the character was more a private detective than he actually is. Leslie Charteris's writing style is great. Fast paced, witty and exciting.
Scenes like this one, from The Uncritical Publisher.
(Mr. Parstone stared at him with blanched lips.
“But fifty thousad pouds is ibpossible,” he whined. “It would be ruid!”
“That’s what I mean to do, dear old bird,” said the Saint gently. “You’ve gone on swindling a lot of harmless idiots for too long already, and now I want you to see what it feels like when it happens to you.”)
Dialog like that keeps me laughing and looking for more. My favorite is always when Mr. Teal is on the receiving end of the Saint's antics and yet, they some how remain almost friends.
Scenes like this one, from The Uncritical Publisher.
(Mr. Parstone stared at him with blanched lips.
“But fifty thousad pouds is ibpossible,” he whined. “It would be ruid!”
“That’s what I mean to do, dear old bird,” said the Saint gently. “You’ve gone on swindling a lot of harmless idiots for too long already, and now I want you to see what it feels like when it happens to you.”)
Dialog like that keeps me laughing and looking for more. My favorite is always when Mr. Teal is on the receiving end of the Saint's antics and yet, they some how remain almost friends.
March 12, 2021
This light and entertaining collection of short stories from 1934 features our dashing buccaneer meting out his own brand of justice on a series of miscreants (and in one story, uncharacteristically failing to prevent a crime). Patricia Holm shows her face occasionally, as do a couple of Simon's compatriots, and Inspector Teal, of course. Apart from one story with some hysterically awful Italian accents, it's mercifully un-racist (also un-diverse and featuring very few women, but hey). Perfectly serviceable. :-)
December 29, 2014
A companion piece to The Brighter Buccaneer, containing the remainder of the twenty-five short stories Charteris wrote for Empire News in the early 1930s, plus a few extras.
Unfortunately Buccaneer seems to have gotten the best of that bunch, with this collection being more on the 'miss' side. The stories here aren't particularly bad: they're just neither as well plotted, nor as well written as normal. Presumably this was simply a result of him having to churn out so many stories in so short a time period, as by far the best stories here are two standalone shorts that were written specially for the book version (“The Mixture as Before”, and “The Art Photographer”) and a pre-Saint story rewritten to replace the original characters with Templar and Teal (“The Man Who Liked Toys”).
Unfortunately Buccaneer seems to have gotten the best of that bunch, with this collection being more on the 'miss' side. The stories here aren't particularly bad: they're just neither as well plotted, nor as well written as normal. Presumably this was simply a result of him having to churn out so many stories in so short a time period, as by far the best stories here are two standalone shorts that were written specially for the book version (“The Mixture as Before”, and “The Art Photographer”) and a pre-Saint story rewritten to replace the original characters with Templar and Teal (“The Man Who Liked Toys”).
September 1, 2018
Further lightweight but entertaining short stories of the Saint (in the same vein as The Brighter Buccaneer), wherein more mysteries are unravelled, more swindlers swindled, and more beer consumed.
Unlike some of his contemporaries, Charteris appears to have been neither a snob nor an inverted snob (although The Noble Sportsman contains some blistering remarks about the Huntin’, Shootin’ and Fishin’ ethos). Politicians, however, get a tremendous series of bloody noses from the Saint books, and captains of industry do not fare well either, as here in The Sleepless Knight.
Pat and Claud Eustace feature throughout, as usual; and Monty Hayward, Peter Quentin and (briefly) Dicky Tremayne drop in to remind us of old times.
The story The Uncritical Publisher is missing from some (especially the British) editions, so be careful which you get.
Variously published as Boodle and The Saint Intervenes.
Unlike some of his contemporaries, Charteris appears to have been neither a snob nor an inverted snob (although The Noble Sportsman contains some blistering remarks about the Huntin’, Shootin’ and Fishin’ ethos). Politicians, however, get a tremendous series of bloody noses from the Saint books, and captains of industry do not fare well either, as here in The Sleepless Knight.
Pat and Claud Eustace feature throughout, as usual; and Monty Hayward, Peter Quentin and (briefly) Dicky Tremayne drop in to remind us of old times.
The story The Uncritical Publisher is missing from some (especially the British) editions, so be careful which you get.
Variously published as Boodle and The Saint Intervenes.
August 3, 2023
I had a light hearted thriller recommended by my book group, didn't like it much and thought "I've seen better by Charteris in my youth" so I downloaded this little gem. At this distance it's a little arch, Charteris might be a little too fond of his hero Simon Templar and some of the caricatures like the Italian accent in one of the stories are of their time. That took the edge off the five stars I'd have given it when I read it in my early twenties - but there's still a lot of pleasure to be derived from the early Saint. He's not the smooth hero we remember from the Roger Moore series yet, he's having fun taking other criminals down whether legally or not; he has a little gang that surrounds him occasionally and of course there's the lugubrious Inspector Teal.
Loads of fun to be had and an early glimpse of the spy and detective genres that would become so popular in the sixties.
Loads of fun to be had and an early glimpse of the spy and detective genres that would become so popular in the sixties.
March 15, 2023
Rating between 4.5 & 5
A very good collection of short stories from the 1930’s Saint. This is the second phase of the character I always think as he doesn’t have his regular helpers anymore, Inspector Teal is more accepting of him, it is pre ww2.
I really do enjoy these stories although I suspect modern readers would say they are too short.
For enjoyment alone I would rate this a 5 overall but perhaps a couple of lower than that so have moved it to a 4 - then again after consideration it might go back up.
A solid recommendation for anyone interested in the Saint character who hasn’t read anything before, and this collection doesn’t read like the stories are over 85 years old either.
A very good collection of short stories from the 1930’s Saint. This is the second phase of the character I always think as he doesn’t have his regular helpers anymore, Inspector Teal is more accepting of him, it is pre ww2.
I really do enjoy these stories although I suspect modern readers would say they are too short.
For enjoyment alone I would rate this a 5 overall but perhaps a couple of lower than that so have moved it to a 4 - then again after consideration it might go back up.
A solid recommendation for anyone interested in the Saint character who hasn’t read anything before, and this collection doesn’t read like the stories are over 85 years old either.
May 14, 2025
Having watched The Saint tv shows for years and having been named after Simon Templar 😅 I had never read any of the books. This collection of 13 short stories was perfect and really enjoyed each of the tales.
April 18, 2024
Great bunch of short stories.
August 8, 2016
Originally published on my blog here in May 2000.
This collection of short stories is not among the best of the Saint books. None of the thirteen stories have anything particularly unexpected or interesting about them, though as a whole they have rather less action than usual, with Simon Templar more an investigator.
The best of this rather forgettable collection is probably The Man Who Liked Toys, in which Templar and Chief Inspector Teal team up to investigate the death of a financier. Two of the stories, as a minor point of interest, involve that now obscure part of aviation history, the then fashionable autogiro.
This collection of short stories is not among the best of the Saint books. None of the thirteen stories have anything particularly unexpected or interesting about them, though as a whole they have rather less action than usual, with Simon Templar more an investigator.
The best of this rather forgettable collection is probably The Man Who Liked Toys, in which Templar and Chief Inspector Teal team up to investigate the death of a financier. Two of the stories, as a minor point of interest, involve that now obscure part of aviation history, the then fashionable autogiro.
January 7, 2015
The fourth Saint book I have read and this one takes the form of a bunch of fairly short stories.
Decent enough stories mind you and with enough ingenuity and twists in the tale to make them worthwhile.
Decent enough stories mind you and with enough ingenuity and twists in the tale to make them worthwhile.
February 3, 2016
He strikes again! I am in love with Simon Templar. That's just all there is to it.
July 8, 2016
Even the author admits in his dedication that this is a bad book.
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May 5, 2009The Saint intervenes by Leslie Charteris
July 14, 2016
Over a dozen short stories -- and all very interesting, with even a Saint's "defeat" in the lot!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews