Trust the Saint

The Saint #35

by Leslie Charteris

Leslie Charteris. Trust the Saint. Hodder and Stoughton, [1962]. First edition, first printing. Twelvemo. 188 pages. Publisher's binding and dust jacket.Six stories featuring Simon Templar

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Short Stories, Adventure, Suspense, Crime

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Born 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."

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Six fairly light & amusing adventures for Simon Templar, first published in the early 1960s, & perfect reading while I'm suffering from covid.
My favourite story here is still The Convenient Monster, which sees the Saint in Scotland on a search for the Loch Ness Monster. It sounds very silly, but it's quite a brutal tale & it was one of the earliest Saint episodes starring Roger Moore that I remember seeing on TV as a child. I think I'll dig out my Saint DVD box set & watch it again!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The version I read this time is a coronet paperback release to celebrate the Return of the Saint tv-series with Ian Ogilvy in the role of Simon Templar. These six short stories have all been made into tv-episodes of the Saint tv-show starring Sir Roger Moore, another saintly man.
The Helpfull pirate - As Simon visits Hamburg hé is enrolled into a treasure hunt.
The bigger game - In which the Saint gets involved into an argument about courage and skill between a big game Hunter and a Bull fighter.
The cleaner cure - when Simon gets told by a Parisian policeman to back off from a criminal and somebody else tickles the Saints' interest when it comes to murder.
The Intemperate reformer - In which Monty Heyward and Sam Outrell once again enjoy the company of our favorite Saint, and when an anti-alcohol reformer, a character which annoys any Saintly person to begin with, troubles one of Simons friends there is a price to be paid.
The Uncured Ham - In which the arms of justice get extended when a Saint interferes.
The conveniant Monster - in which Simon goes monster hunting around the shores of Loch Ness.

An enjoyable collection of stories of an older Saint who is more wary when it gets to people and their intensions. For Saint fans a feast in the return of two characters, a brilliant monsterhunt. A nice revisit to Charteris' hero who remains a guilty pleasure for me ever since my first encounter with the Saint as a wee lad. Honestly freed from my fathers' bookshelves into my collection.

[Paul Magnussen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection, from 1962, finds the Saint variously in Hamburg, London, Paris, Hurley (England), Stockholm and Loch Ness.

The outer stories are rather formulaic and not very interesting, despite some entertaining trivia about the Monster in the last. But the two inner stories are minor gems.

In Paris, Simon attempts to help a frail chambermaid who, at her wits’ end, has appealed to him for help against a particularly foul blackmailer. But the apparently easy task is unexpectedly complicated by Inspector Archimède Quercy of the Police Judiciare, whom we last met in The Saint In Europe.

And, very unusually in a story of this late vintage, in The Intemperate Reformer we have the return of two old friends: Sam Outrell, Simon’s janitor when he lived at Cornwall House before WWII; and Monty Hayward, his reluctant but stalwart fellow-outlaw through Getaway, likewise over 20 years before.

Both of these stories compare with Charteris at his best, in the pre-War days. Whether they’re worth the price of the book will of course depend on your budget.

[Steve Goble · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Saint is definitely a wish-fulfillment character, a modern Robin Hood adventurer with his own moral code and an incredible skill set. This is pure escapist fiction, and the stories are loads of fun. There are many books in the series, mostly collections of short stories. The Saint skirts the law, and breaks it, but generally works against the Ungodly.

I have read a lot of these books, and thankfully have a lot more to go. The earliest books are weaker, but the series improved with age. I found this particular collection to be among the best I have tried.

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another set of six short stories that come off quite well. Of note, is the first, "The Helpful Pirate," and the last, "The Convenient Monster." These are the most memorable in the book, and, as it happens, they are two of the best stories to be adapted for the Roger Moore television series. In fact, although it happens rarely in the comparison, the television episodes were superior to the printed versions. "Pirate" describes an elaborate con game set in Hamburg to recover a pirate's treasure. It's a detailed and fast paced story told efficiently. Alas for the con men (and woman) Simon has them figured out ahead of time. "Monster" is built around the Loch Ness Monster tale. Atmosphere stands out, here, and makes me almost want to visit Scotland again--but not quite. Maybe Charteris was watching Hammer horror movies when he wrote this one, because it has that Hammer feel about it. Five of the six stories are open-ended, leaving the fate of the principles to be imagined. Only in "The Uncured Ham" is everything cut and dry at the finish. This is the next to the last book of Saint tales that Charteris himself wrote before handing the remainder off to ghost writers. It's not his best, but it's enjoyable enough. Hard to imagine that Charteris essentially made a career out of writing about and managing the exploitation through varied media just one character which he first imagined when he was twenty years old.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog here in October 2001.

Six Saint stories from the early sixties, as the date approached the launch of the TV series. Indeed, the final story is one which I remember seeing Roger Moore in, memorable because it is a silly tale about the search for the Loch Ness Monster.

Apart from this, Trust the Saint is one of the least memorable of all the collections of Saint stories. The tales are enjoyable enough when read, but quickly fade from the mind.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, but the writing style has not aged well, what with an often stilted and wordy narrative. As other reviewers have said, the last story, about Loch Ness, is pretty bad. A good plane or commute read nevertheless.

[Doug Newdick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love The Saint, and this collection has all of the key characteristics without really shining.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating for stories between 3 & 4
Overall rating for collection 4