Leslie Charteris (born Leslie Bowyer-Yin) with this book invented his long-lived character Simon Templar, who gets his nickname of the Saint from his initials, and sometimes leaves a signature drawing of a haloed stick figure at the scene of his capers. He is an adolescent’s fantasy hero who combines romantic power—he is tall, tanned if not exactly dark, and handsome—with physical prowess at gunplay, knife-throwing, and hand-to-hand fighting; strength, superb conditioning and stamina; speed and athletic ability—and humor, presence of mind, as well as insouciant daring in confronting danger.
He comes to the quiet seaside village of Baycombe because he has heard of plot by a criminal mastermind known only as the Tiger. A large amount of gold stolen from a Chicago bank, impossible to turn into cash in any quiet way, is to be disposed of by using it to salt a South African mine, driving up the price of its stock that the Tiger has bought very cheaply.
Templar pretends he wants the gold for himself, but in fact he has made a deal with the bank to recover the gold for a percentage of its value. He is in competition with a detective named Carn, also out to find the gold and unmask the Tiger.
Complicating the Saint’s project is the romance that has developed between him and Patricia Holm, who lives in Baycombe with her aunt. Patricia proves herself an adventurer in her own right and pursues the quest for the gold even when she believes the Saint to be dead.
Charteris makes the Tiger’s identity too guessable in overdoing the least-likely-suspect device. His prolixity can get tedious in this book, although more under control in later ones: Templar and Patricia spend much too much time thinking about how to proceed and anticipating possibilities, slowing the action. The plot gets so complex we lose track of why things are happening, but all comes right in the end if our suspension of disbelief holds.
No comments:
Post a Comment