What do you think?
Rate this book
Daredevil
Daredevil by Leslie Charteris in Hardcover.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1929
About the author
Leslie Charteris
619 books167 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."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 13, 2012
Leslie Charteris' second novel describes yet another nefarious plot that threatens the safety of England's citizens. This time it's a mysterious criminal organization that is assassinating public figures, setting explosions, and demanding a ransom of fifteen million pounds to spare London from disaster. It's not a spoiler to reveal that there's more than greed behind the threats, and our intrepid protagonists must sort through a Gordian tangle of career criminals and personal secrets to uncover the truth.
Daredevil is an indirect sequel to X Esquire, though it's not strictly necessary to read them in order. Even though the events of the previous book are referenced once or twice, the author wisely avoids giving away too much or spoiling the ending of that story. I've seen Daredevil called a "follow-up" work, which is probably a more accurate description.
A few characters from X Esquire are present in minor roles, but Charteris introduces two new leads for this adventure: Christopher (Kit) "Storm" Arden, a likable hero who, had the author continued writing about him, might have been developed into as fully a charismatic personality as his more famous literary brother, Simon Templar; and a certain police inspector named Claud Eustace Teal, who spends a delightful amount of time in the limelight compared to most of his later appearances as the Saint's foil and frequent joke-butt. For those versed in Saint lore, it may be strange to see Teal in a supporting role as Storm's lower-ranking sidekick, but he and his ubiquitous chewing gum are given plenty of establishing characterization here. Also present is a refreshingly on-screen female, Susan Hawthorne, who -- in contrast to her predecessors in X Esquire -- actually thinks, speaks and takes action to defend herself when she is in danger. She's still not winning any women's-lib medals, but at least she has a narrative point-of-view and shows enough initiative to become irritated at Storm occasionally, which makes her a hundred times more interesting than any of the gals in X Esquire. (For Saint fans: She's roughly on par with Patricia Holm in usefulness.)
Plot-wise, the book is very typical of most other early Charteris novels I've read: A string of mysterious crimes reveals a massive plot that threatens to destroy England; the enemy may be using some secret pseudo-scientific device; our dashing young hero must operate outside the law to bring the guilty parties to justice, as well as rescue the pretty girl who is guaranteed to be put in danger at some point. By law of averages, there's also likely to be a subplot of revenge and/or blackmail. The recipe is not a bad one -- Charteris built quite a career on such formulae -- and, as a bonus, Daredevil mixes in a couple of elements that aren't present in any of the Saint stories that I have read. Without spoiling the reveal, the threads knotting Kit Arden into events actually surprised me. Although the angle has been worked into so many other stories that it's practically a trope, it was not at all what I expected from Charteris, which made it seem interesting instead of cliche. The plot is still not as refined as the author's later work -- this was, after all, only his second published novel -- but it's a clear step up from X Esquire, and for me it was a refreshing break in form from the entertaining-yet-predictable conflicts of most of the Saint stories.
The tone of writing is also a shade different from Charteris' other works. The dialogue is still fast and snappy, but it matches neither the easy vitriol of the Saint, nor the drawling Wodehouse-like banter of Terry Mannering. Things move fast, in colloquial speech, with so much period detective and criminal jargon that at one point I actually had to look up a word in a slang dictionary to follow the scene. (It was humbling. Reading period fiction has the effect of making me feel simultaneously very smart and very dense.) The tone fits the characters well, but I often had to reread a line or two to decode the thick accents of some of the criminal element.
Short version: Like the previous book, this is not the best novel Charteris ever wrote; but it's entertaining enough to be worth a read, and Saint fans won't want to miss Teal's early days.
Daredevil is an indirect sequel to X Esquire, though it's not strictly necessary to read them in order. Even though the events of the previous book are referenced once or twice, the author wisely avoids giving away too much or spoiling the ending of that story. I've seen Daredevil called a "follow-up" work, which is probably a more accurate description.
A few characters from X Esquire are present in minor roles, but Charteris introduces two new leads for this adventure: Christopher (Kit) "Storm" Arden, a likable hero who, had the author continued writing about him, might have been developed into as fully a charismatic personality as his more famous literary brother, Simon Templar; and a certain police inspector named Claud Eustace Teal, who spends a delightful amount of time in the limelight compared to most of his later appearances as the Saint's foil and frequent joke-butt. For those versed in Saint lore, it may be strange to see Teal in a supporting role as Storm's lower-ranking sidekick, but he and his ubiquitous chewing gum are given plenty of establishing characterization here. Also present is a refreshingly on-screen female, Susan Hawthorne, who -- in contrast to her predecessors in X Esquire -- actually thinks, speaks and takes action to defend herself when she is in danger. She's still not winning any women's-lib medals, but at least she has a narrative point-of-view and shows enough initiative to become irritated at Storm occasionally, which makes her a hundred times more interesting than any of the gals in X Esquire. (For Saint fans: She's roughly on par with Patricia Holm in usefulness.)
Plot-wise, the book is very typical of most other early Charteris novels I've read: A string of mysterious crimes reveals a massive plot that threatens to destroy England; the enemy may be using some secret pseudo-scientific device; our dashing young hero must operate outside the law to bring the guilty parties to justice, as well as rescue the pretty girl who is guaranteed to be put in danger at some point. By law of averages, there's also likely to be a subplot of revenge and/or blackmail. The recipe is not a bad one -- Charteris built quite a career on such formulae -- and, as a bonus, Daredevil mixes in a couple of elements that aren't present in any of the Saint stories that I have read. Without spoiling the reveal, the threads knotting Kit Arden into events actually surprised me. Although the angle has been worked into so many other stories that it's practically a trope, it was not at all what I expected from Charteris, which made it seem interesting instead of cliche. The plot is still not as refined as the author's later work -- this was, after all, only his second published novel -- but it's a clear step up from X Esquire, and for me it was a refreshing break in form from the entertaining-yet-predictable conflicts of most of the Saint stories.
The tone of writing is also a shade different from Charteris' other works. The dialogue is still fast and snappy, but it matches neither the easy vitriol of the Saint, nor the drawling Wodehouse-like banter of Terry Mannering. Things move fast, in colloquial speech, with so much period detective and criminal jargon that at one point I actually had to look up a word in a slang dictionary to follow the scene. (It was humbling. Reading period fiction has the effect of making me feel simultaneously very smart and very dense.) The tone fits the characters well, but I often had to reread a line or two to decode the thick accents of some of the criminal element.
Short version: Like the previous book, this is not the best novel Charteris ever wrote; but it's entertaining enough to be worth a read, and Saint fans won't want to miss Teal's early days.
Displaying 1 of 1 review