Enter the Saint

Rating:
Summary: The first real Saint book.
Review: (The second of the Saint books, where Simon Templar really began to hit his stride. Charteris in later years didn't care for the first book, Meet the Tiger! very much.)

Consists of 2 novellas, "The Man Who Was Clever" and "The Lawless Lady". If you have The Saint: Five Complete Novels, then you already have this book as part of that one.

In "The Man Who Was Clever", the Saint takes on Edgar Hayn, a drug dealer who runs some undercover gambling operations in London. "The Lawless Lady" is more the story of Dicky Tremayne, one of the Saint's friends and another wearer of the halo, and his pursuit of Audrey Perowne.

Covers the first appearance of Inspector Teal, and the poor man's initial encounters with the Saint, when the Saint was first beginning to make his signature stick-figure drawings the terror of evildoers. In those days, the Saint operated with a team of four other Saints, and made a point of donating 10% of the take from every operation to charity (which helped rub the salt into Teal's wounds by underlining that the Saint had got away with it yet again...)

Rating:
Summary: The first real Saint book.
Review: (The second of the Saint books, where Simon Templar really began to hit his stride. Charteris in later years didn't care for the first book, Meet the Tiger! very much.)

Consists of 2 novellas, "The Man Who Was Clever" and "The Lawless Lady". If you have The Saint: Five Complete Novels, then you already have this book as part of that one.

In "The Man Who Was Clever", the Saint takes on Edgar Hayn, a drug dealer who runs some undercover gambling operations in London. "The Lawless Lady" is more the story of Dicky Tremayne, one of the Saint's friends and another wearer of the halo, and his pursuit of Audrey Perowne.

Covers the first appearance of Inspector Teal, and the poor man's initial encounters with the Saint, when the Saint was first beginning to make his signature stick-figure drawings the terror of evildoers. In those days, the Saint operated with a team of four other Saints, and made a point of donating 10% of the take from every operation to charity (which helped rub the salt into Teal's wounds by underlining that the Saint had got away with it yet again...)

Rating:
Summary: How the Saint Makes His Debut
Review: I read a Pocket Book Edition, and it contains three stories; "The Man Who Was Clever", "The Policeman With Wings", "The Lawless Lady".

This book is written after "The Last Hero", but it describes the Saint's adventures before "The Last Hero", how he makes his debut as a "Modern Robin Hood". In the foreword, Charteris states that this is the answer to the many people's question how the Saint gains the reputation that he already has in "The Last Hero".

The stories are rather simple and not so unique as later stories such as "The Saint and Mr. Teal". But I like them. Few dull parts and highly enjoyable. I particularly love the Saint of this era; youthful, gay and lively. And I also like his amiable and capable sidekick Roger Conway. It's a pity that he doesn't appear on later stories.