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The Saint #24
The Saint Steps In
Ace Charter edition paperback, vg++
244 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1943
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167 people want to read
About the author
Leslie Charteris
585 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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September 27, 2023ok but the Saint is kind of a dick
April 18, 2017
Originally published on my blog here in April 2001.
This novel, written towards the end of the war, is a typical Saint plot - beautiful woman in danger because of innocent involvement in a criminal scheme - set against the background of one of the most important industries for the war effort, rubber production.
In many ways, The Saint Steps In could be considered a paradigm for Saint novels. It is an exciting thriller, and is also an uncompromising attack on the elements of society that Charteris despised - in this case, Nazis, fifth columnists, profiteers, and those who through stupidity allowed these people to operate. Not profound, perhaps, but certainly enjoyable.
This novel, written towards the end of the war, is a typical Saint plot - beautiful woman in danger because of innocent involvement in a criminal scheme - set against the background of one of the most important industries for the war effort, rubber production.
In many ways, The Saint Steps In could be considered a paradigm for Saint novels. It is an exciting thriller, and is also an uncompromising attack on the elements of society that Charteris despised - in this case, Nazis, fifth columnists, profiteers, and those who through stupidity allowed these people to operate. Not profound, perhaps, but certainly enjoyable.
January 10, 2018
Another solid entry in the Saint series. This one is all about World War II industrial espionage. Leslie Charteris makes it very clear how he feels about Nazis and Nazi sympathizers (whether they see themselves as such or not).
Simon is enjoying a much-needed break in Washington, DC, when he is approached by the lovely young Madeline Gray, who asks for his help. Her father has invented a revolutionary method of making synthetic rubber, a valuable commodity during wartime. However, he has a problem getting anyone interested. Madeline is attempting to see Imberline, a Washington bigwig, in an attempt to drum up support for her father's invention, but someone left her a note that states ominously, "Don't try to see Imberline." Madeline appears to be innocent, earnest, and determined - but is she telling the truth?
Of course, it doesn't take Simon long to get caught up in all sorts of trouble, as usual. He finds there is a lot more to Madeline's story than even she knows. There's a dangerous conspiracy at work involving some very ruthless men:
Suspenseful, fast-moving thriller that does not feel dated in the least. How many 70+ year old books can you say that about?
Simon is enjoying a much-needed break in Washington, DC, when he is approached by the lovely young Madeline Gray, who asks for his help. Her father has invented a revolutionary method of making synthetic rubber, a valuable commodity during wartime. However, he has a problem getting anyone interested. Madeline is attempting to see Imberline, a Washington bigwig, in an attempt to drum up support for her father's invention, but someone left her a note that states ominously, "Don't try to see Imberline." Madeline appears to be innocent, earnest, and determined - but is she telling the truth?
"Simon felt the whirring of gears somewhere within him; gears which instinctively sprang into action when he sensed the possibility of excitement in the offing. And the girl's behavior was just like the beginning of an adventure story."
Of course, it doesn't take Simon long to get caught up in all sorts of trouble, as usual. He finds there is a lot more to Madeline's story than even she knows. There's a dangerous conspiracy at work involving some very ruthless men:
"...there were times when you had to step right through ordinary laws and restrictions. There was a world outside the ordinary lawful world of average people, and to fight anyone there you had to move completely into his world, or else he was as untouchable and invulnerable as if here in another dimension.
**************************************
It was a good thing, Simon thought, that he also could move in dimensions where such considerations were only words."
Suspenseful, fast-moving thriller that does not feel dated in the least. How many 70+ year old books can you say that about?
June 2, 2025
Perhaps the dreariest of the full-length Saint novels.
Of the wartime stories, Charteris said (perfectly reasonably) that 1) to be at all credible, the Saint’s contribution to the war effort had to be minuscule, and 2) he didn’t want the Saint doing things more heroic than many ordinary people were doing every day in real life.
Certainly it would be farcical to have (for instance) Simon breaking into the Berghof and punching Hitler on the nose. Even so, it seems bizarre that a skilled pilot who can pass for German (as he does in Getaway) should be spending his time trying to get attention for a formula for artificial rubber, as he does here*.
Charteris’s writing never falls below a certain minimum level of competence, and the villains don’t quite descend to the “Ve haff vays of making you talk” level, but this is just plain dull.
*Indeed, in a couple of post-war stories (e.g. The Covetous Headsman) there are passing references (no more) to wartime exploits in Europe.
Of the wartime stories, Charteris said (perfectly reasonably) that 1) to be at all credible, the Saint’s contribution to the war effort had to be minuscule, and 2) he didn’t want the Saint doing things more heroic than many ordinary people were doing every day in real life.
Certainly it would be farcical to have (for instance) Simon breaking into the Berghof and punching Hitler on the nose. Even so, it seems bizarre that a skilled pilot who can pass for German (as he does in Getaway) should be spending his time trying to get attention for a formula for artificial rubber, as he does here*.
Charteris’s writing never falls below a certain minimum level of competence, and the villains don’t quite descend to the “Ve haff vays of making you talk” level, but this is just plain dull.
*Indeed, in a couple of post-war stories (e.g. The Covetous Headsman) there are passing references (no more) to wartime exploits in Europe.
June 4, 2020
Not one of the best Saint novels. I have the impression that Charteris wrote it just to make sure a new Saint novel was published during the war years. It is mostly a static story where the Saint does a lot of thinking, talking, smoking and drinking liquor. The action is minimal and I never felt the threat to human life was serious. The author uses many long words not commonly used in daily conversation; and stretches sentences further than necessary. I gave it 3 stars because it is not as bad as MEET THE TIGER, the first Saint novel. But it is rather boring.
March 9, 2024
Lemme be one of those clichéd tourists who wanted to buy a book from the banks of the Seine from an old bookseller. I didn’t realise how picky I was when I selected my books that I managed not to buy as many as I had planned. I wanted a book by a French author as I want to read the book in the original language, something not too hard because my French isn’t that great and something that isn’t readily available in English.
The old bookseller was nice to me and recommended me Leslie Charteris, a French sounding guy who actually is the precursor of Ian Fleming before he even wrote James Bond. So I got duped, and yeah I took the bookseller’s word for granted. Though he might enjoy these adventure novels I guess he couldn’t care less where the author was from. But no matter, once I started a book I have to finish it and the French translation from the English original was easy enough to understand.
Charteris was British-Chinese by origin — an eclectic heritage, not to mention that he was born in Singapore, a cosmopolitan mix reflective of his origin. You wouldn’t have picked this up if you read his novels blindly, as I did, but I’ve always wanted to know the author’s background as I’ve always believed that it shapes the viewpoint of the author. Charteris is a good-looking bloke with a mixed blood, a lack of roots and an English accent you’d mistake for what could be an imitation of his creation — James Bond.
Stepping into rubbery business
We meet Simon Templar, the somewhat reputable Saint, speaking to a woman who had procured his services. She was threatened by a mysterious party, not to meet with a man who may procure her father’s invention: synthetic rubber made out of common materials. It is a material which may be pivotal in the cogs of war: rubber, it seems, is an important material for the building blocks of war.
What follows is a series of sleepless events where the Saint has to follow the girl in question, fend off baddies of her, take her to safety and being pursued by other mysterious characters that may or may not have malicious motives themselves. In the meantime, the inventor has gone missing from his house and may have been kidnapped. Time is running out as the whole thing stinks like a Nazi-engineered scheme.
The success and plight of The Saint
I didn’t know it, but The Saint is single-handedly one of the greatest survivors in the history of novels: from 1928 to 1963, manned by Charteris. At its height, The Saint was battling Nazis while Bond was living under the shadow of the Cold War. And I can understand why: The Saint is a novel that is easy to digest, that packs little punch and a formulaic plot, with a plethora of adventurism. It is good for escapism, nothing more.
For this reason, Charteris was able to spin out close to 50 novels and 100 short stories featuring Simon Templar. I’m glad he did, for one of my favourite movies from my childhood was The Saint starring Val Kilmer as the title character where he played a dozen different characters in disguise, and played them all equally well. I much prefer that version of Templar than the one I just read.
The novel’s Simon Templar has the toxic characteristics of James Bond: a womaniser, sharp with his tongue and arguably, an unofficial licence to kill. He’s a bit of a douche as well on how he treats his adversaries and even colleagues. The Saint to me, feels like a run of the mill hero we’ve seen a lot in movies and TV, of which he also regenerated into.
The context of the novel is perhaps more of a draw than the novel itself — the year of publication is 1942. At this time, Nazism and fascism is more dangerous than Covid nowadays, and nobody is ever sure whether the virus has penetrated the homeland or not. It is a climate of uncertainty where capitalism still rules and rules riot, loyalties to the nation are tested even before McCarthyism was a thing, and the war was in everybody’s minds even in their quiet moments. Perhaps the success of The Saint is in the people’s needs of heroes such as Templar — who can succeed in his endeavours to swing the tides of war their way.
In this case, I don’t think I would go too deeply into the Saint and his other novels. I can’t help comparing Templar to Bond, and I much prefer Fleming’s prose. Then again, I might read a couple more of Charteris’s work if I ever come across them, because I’d argue that I read the book in the wrong language. Perhaps Charteris’s prose is better than the translation. But if I don’t come across another Templar novel, I’m fine with that too.
The old bookseller was nice to me and recommended me Leslie Charteris, a French sounding guy who actually is the precursor of Ian Fleming before he even wrote James Bond. So I got duped, and yeah I took the bookseller’s word for granted. Though he might enjoy these adventure novels I guess he couldn’t care less where the author was from. But no matter, once I started a book I have to finish it and the French translation from the English original was easy enough to understand.
Charteris was British-Chinese by origin — an eclectic heritage, not to mention that he was born in Singapore, a cosmopolitan mix reflective of his origin. You wouldn’t have picked this up if you read his novels blindly, as I did, but I’ve always wanted to know the author’s background as I’ve always believed that it shapes the viewpoint of the author. Charteris is a good-looking bloke with a mixed blood, a lack of roots and an English accent you’d mistake for what could be an imitation of his creation — James Bond.
Stepping into rubbery business
We meet Simon Templar, the somewhat reputable Saint, speaking to a woman who had procured his services. She was threatened by a mysterious party, not to meet with a man who may procure her father’s invention: synthetic rubber made out of common materials. It is a material which may be pivotal in the cogs of war: rubber, it seems, is an important material for the building blocks of war.
What follows is a series of sleepless events where the Saint has to follow the girl in question, fend off baddies of her, take her to safety and being pursued by other mysterious characters that may or may not have malicious motives themselves. In the meantime, the inventor has gone missing from his house and may have been kidnapped. Time is running out as the whole thing stinks like a Nazi-engineered scheme.
The success and plight of The Saint
I didn’t know it, but The Saint is single-handedly one of the greatest survivors in the history of novels: from 1928 to 1963, manned by Charteris. At its height, The Saint was battling Nazis while Bond was living under the shadow of the Cold War. And I can understand why: The Saint is a novel that is easy to digest, that packs little punch and a formulaic plot, with a plethora of adventurism. It is good for escapism, nothing more.
For this reason, Charteris was able to spin out close to 50 novels and 100 short stories featuring Simon Templar. I’m glad he did, for one of my favourite movies from my childhood was The Saint starring Val Kilmer as the title character where he played a dozen different characters in disguise, and played them all equally well. I much prefer that version of Templar than the one I just read.
The novel’s Simon Templar has the toxic characteristics of James Bond: a womaniser, sharp with his tongue and arguably, an unofficial licence to kill. He’s a bit of a douche as well on how he treats his adversaries and even colleagues. The Saint to me, feels like a run of the mill hero we’ve seen a lot in movies and TV, of which he also regenerated into.
The context of the novel is perhaps more of a draw than the novel itself — the year of publication is 1942. At this time, Nazism and fascism is more dangerous than Covid nowadays, and nobody is ever sure whether the virus has penetrated the homeland or not. It is a climate of uncertainty where capitalism still rules and rules riot, loyalties to the nation are tested even before McCarthyism was a thing, and the war was in everybody’s minds even in their quiet moments. Perhaps the success of The Saint is in the people’s needs of heroes such as Templar — who can succeed in his endeavours to swing the tides of war their way.
In this case, I don’t think I would go too deeply into the Saint and his other novels. I can’t help comparing Templar to Bond, and I much prefer Fleming’s prose. Then again, I might read a couple more of Charteris’s work if I ever come across them, because I’d argue that I read the book in the wrong language. Perhaps Charteris’s prose is better than the translation. But if I don’t come across another Templar novel, I’m fine with that too.
September 25, 2022
Major characters:
Madeline Gray, who seeks out The Saint
Calvin Gray, her inventor father
Frank Imberline, WPB (War Production Board)
Sylvester Angert, a funny little man
Hobart Quennel, head of Quenco Chemical
Andrea Quennel, his daughter; a.k.a. Diana Barry
Walter Devan, personnel manager of Quenco Chemical
Karl Morgen, a tough
Simon Templar, The Saint
Inspector John Fernack, of the police
Locale: Washington, New York, and Conneticut
Synopsis: World War II is in progress. Simon Templar is in Washington. A young Madeline Gray recognizes him and seeks his help. She is the daughter of chemist Calvin Gray, and is trying to interest the Washington bureaucrats in her father's invention: a synthetic rubber; which would be invaluable for the war effort.
She sets up an appointment with Frank Imberline of the War Production Board. Then she is warned off from seeing him. Simon visits Imberline to find he was unaware of the appointment. Suddenly various actors start having an interest in Madeline: Walter Devan of Quenco Chemical, and Sylvester Angert, a funny little man who listens at her hotel room keyhole. Someone shoots through the window of Simon's hotel room.
Simon wants to check out Calvin's Gray's process. He and Madeline travel to her home in Connecticut, to find Calvin apparently missing. Madeline sees a man lurking in the lab, and recognizes him as Calvin's former employee, Karl Morgen. Simon challenges him. Morgen flees. Simon chases, and trips over the body of Sylvester Angert.
Review: This, being one of the early Saint stories, is when he is in his early tough-guy persona, which may have played well in the movies, but is a bit too hard-boiled. (He even refers to the actor who plays him in the movies!) He tends to hit or shoot first, not the subtle Saint we like so much later on. Plus, this is set in the US which is not his best venue.
I really prefer those set in the UK when he has Patricia Holm at his side, and matches wits with Claude Eustace Teal.
Other than that, we have the stock bad-guys-after-the-scientist plot, complete with the beautiful daughter in distress. Overall, quite predictable with a lot of World War II era paranoia stirred in.
Madeline Gray, who seeks out The Saint
Calvin Gray, her inventor father
Frank Imberline, WPB (War Production Board)
Sylvester Angert, a funny little man
Hobart Quennel, head of Quenco Chemical
Andrea Quennel, his daughter; a.k.a. Diana Barry
Walter Devan, personnel manager of Quenco Chemical
Karl Morgen, a tough
Simon Templar, The Saint
Inspector John Fernack, of the police
Locale: Washington, New York, and Conneticut
Synopsis: World War II is in progress. Simon Templar is in Washington. A young Madeline Gray recognizes him and seeks his help. She is the daughter of chemist Calvin Gray, and is trying to interest the Washington bureaucrats in her father's invention: a synthetic rubber; which would be invaluable for the war effort.
She sets up an appointment with Frank Imberline of the War Production Board. Then she is warned off from seeing him. Simon visits Imberline to find he was unaware of the appointment. Suddenly various actors start having an interest in Madeline: Walter Devan of Quenco Chemical, and Sylvester Angert, a funny little man who listens at her hotel room keyhole. Someone shoots through the window of Simon's hotel room.
Simon wants to check out Calvin's Gray's process. He and Madeline travel to her home in Connecticut, to find Calvin apparently missing. Madeline sees a man lurking in the lab, and recognizes him as Calvin's former employee, Karl Morgen. Simon challenges him. Morgen flees. Simon chases, and trips over the body of Sylvester Angert.
Review: This, being one of the early Saint stories, is when he is in his early tough-guy persona, which may have played well in the movies, but is a bit too hard-boiled. (He even refers to the actor who plays him in the movies!) He tends to hit or shoot first, not the subtle Saint we like so much later on. Plus, this is set in the US which is not his best venue.
I really prefer those set in the UK when he has Patricia Holm at his side, and matches wits with Claude Eustace Teal.
Other than that, we have the stock bad-guys-after-the-scientist plot, complete with the beautiful daughter in distress. Overall, quite predictable with a lot of World War II era paranoia stirred in.
May 30, 2025
When The Saint goes to war, Steps In is what you get. The book is radically different, in my view, from all previous Saint stories. It's far grittier, with Simon Templar's badinage mostly reduced to quips and replaced with the hardest of hard-boiled dialog yet. Something else unseen before: Charteris uses a mid book recapitulation of events. This is a standard format for many, if not most, mystery/thriller writers, synthesizing and summarizing events for the first half of the book, so that readers don't become lost. Attentive readers don't need it, yet this application of the mystery model also serves to drop in some new directions as well. In short, I thought this one of the better Saint works until I got to the Saint's dinner rant towards the end.
How did it go wrong? According to the publication history at the end of the book, this is one of the shortest and least well received volumes in The Saint series. I'm guessing it's because the Saint decided at the end to attack most American industrialists, calling them fascists and Nazis and hinting at the need for revolution. The Saint reader in wartime America might just have found this to be a little off putting. The story itself is not all that grand: the invention of a new method of making synthetic rubber, which rival industrialists attempt to squash, because they are all greedy and want to be set up to make huge profits after the war. How many people saw this as closet Communism in 1944 America? More to the point, how many book distributors felt uneasy about it.
You can put aside this attitude on the part of Charteris. But the dinner rant is too much. It's like the Saint was attempting to recreate his own Charlie Chaplin moment at the end of The Great Dictator. I'm not so sure, by the way, that Chaplin isn't more than a little too hamfisted, either. At any rate, the Saint was--hamfisted, that is. Badinage? No, rant. That's not what most Saint readers came to Charteris' books for. Nor did it help that Simon Templar proclaimed he was no longer "outside the law" but instead a member of the wartime government establishment. That's never how the Saint worked, and it doesn't work, here, not even in wartime. Simon Templar did everything but try and sell War Bonds in this novel.
How did it go wrong? According to the publication history at the end of the book, this is one of the shortest and least well received volumes in The Saint series. I'm guessing it's because the Saint decided at the end to attack most American industrialists, calling them fascists and Nazis and hinting at the need for revolution. The Saint reader in wartime America might just have found this to be a little off putting. The story itself is not all that grand: the invention of a new method of making synthetic rubber, which rival industrialists attempt to squash, because they are all greedy and want to be set up to make huge profits after the war. How many people saw this as closet Communism in 1944 America? More to the point, how many book distributors felt uneasy about it.
You can put aside this attitude on the part of Charteris. But the dinner rant is too much. It's like the Saint was attempting to recreate his own Charlie Chaplin moment at the end of The Great Dictator. I'm not so sure, by the way, that Chaplin isn't more than a little too hamfisted, either. At any rate, the Saint was--hamfisted, that is. Badinage? No, rant. That's not what most Saint readers came to Charteris' books for. Nor did it help that Simon Templar proclaimed he was no longer "outside the law" but instead a member of the wartime government establishment. That's never how the Saint worked, and it doesn't work, here, not even in wartime. Simon Templar did everything but try and sell War Bonds in this novel.
May 3, 2025
1942, there's a war on. The rubber trees were an early loss so a formula for artificial rubber should be welcome; but it's not. A little bit of physical violence and a LOT of thinking about war, Nazis, the home front, industry...... Plot? Not! Put this by your bedside for sleepless nights. ZZZZZ.
March 1, 2017
Starting with The Saint in Miami, quality seems to be going down: long winded tales with nazis, inventions, and the like -- hopefully, these are about the last novels, and onwards it's all short tales or novellas, I think.
July 11, 2012
Good summer reading. Interesting, but not really exciting or a serious page-turner.
There's the added bonus of being very "in the time". It's nice from time to time to immerse oneself into another time in history.
There's the added bonus of being very "in the time". It's nice from time to time to immerse oneself into another time in history.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews