Book Review: The Saint Closes the Case by Leslie Charteris

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In my ongoing quest to read all the adventures of Simon Templar in order, I've just finished the third book in the saga. “The Saint Closes the Case” was originally titled “The Last Hero”, which I think is a better title. First published in 1930, the copy I've just read the 1963 edition – I'll go into why this is relevant in a moment. It's not completely clear where this story fits into the Saint's timeline. It's been a year since the the events of “Meet The Tiger” (the first Saint book), and at the start of the story, Simon Templar has recently concluded a three-month long spree of vigilante action, culminating with blowing up a terrorist. At this point, he's known to the press and general public only as the Saint – no-one outside his immediate circle knows his real identity yet. This means that this novel has to take place before the events of “The Policeman With Wings” the second story in the previous volume, “Enter the Saint”, but almost certainly after “The Man Who Was Clever”, the first story in that volume. In “Meet The Tiger”, Simon Templar is basically a fortune-hunter. In “Enter The Saint”, he's operating mostly as a vigilante with a bit of profit-making on the side. In “The Saint Closes The Case”, the Saint gets himself involved in international politics and counter-espionage. Taking a break from his crime-fighting activities, Templar takes his girlfriend Patricia Holm for a drive in the countryside and stumbles on some suspicious activity at an isolated house. A scientist by the name of Professor Vargan is demonstrating a new weapon to representatives of the British Government – a way of imbuing a cloud of gas with an enormous electrical charge and then directing it towards an enemy, so that any living creature it touches is instantly incinerated. Vargan gives the British Government the first option to buy his weapon, but if they refuse he's willing to sell it to the highest bidder. Disturbed by what he's seen, and interrupted by another intruder on the grounds, the Saint goes back to London and does a bit of research. He's already talked to a journalist friend, who tells him that war is closer than the general public thinks. Reading the papers, and reading between the lines, Templar deduces that a coalition of international financiers is manipulating the political situation in Europe to provoke a war, which they will then profit from via investments in war-related commodities. At the heart of the conspiracy is Rayt Marius, a millionaire who has supposedly made his fortune by engineering minor wars in the past. Marius is a citizen of an unnamed European country, and his plan seems to be to kidnap Vargan and deliver him into the hands of the Crown Prince of that nation. Possession of Vargan's weapon by that country will supposedly then tip the balance of power enough to trigger a general war, with Marius' financial backers making a fortune by supplying the necessary strategic materials. At this point, I realised that the book I was reading had been clumsily updated, with mentions of Nikita Kruschev and the United Nations being mentioned in newspaper stories that the Saint was reading. I don't know if this was Leslie Charteris' idea or his editor, but they did a bad job of it. First, despite these modern-day insertions, the rest of the book – the dialogue, attitudes, environment and international political situation – still feels like a product of 1930, not the 1960s. Second, triggering a war by supplying a European country with Vargan's weapon might just about have made sense in the 30s, but not in the much more structured Cold War period, when most of Europe was divided between two power blocs. Third, Vargan's weapon would have been fearsome by 1930s standards, but not in comparison to the H bomb. Fortunately, that's the only small bit of “updating” that I spotted, so it was easy to ignore. Back to the plot, Simon Templar is disturbed by the potential of this weapon and gets his friends together – apart from Patricia, he's joined by Roger Conway and Norman Kent, apparently the only two members of his original gang who are still active in England, plus Templar's manservant Orace. Templar has decided that this weapon is too dangerous for any government to possess, so his plan is to stop Vargan from sharing his discovery. Initially, Templar decides to kill Vargan, but then he decides to kidnap him and try to persuade him to keep his invention to himself – but to kill him if he refuses. Templar has decided that even killing an innocent man is justified if it prevents massive suffering in a future war. I wasn't comfortable with this aspect of the plot at all – the idea that some people can be sacrificed for the “greater good” is the main justification for no end of wars and dictatorships. Having said that, if I could only enjoy stories that lined up with my particular moral philosophy, it would spoil my enjoyment of a lot of books and films. The plot develops rapidly. Templar, Conway and Kent plan to kidnap Vargan from his house in the countryside. Vargan is guarded by a squad of police, headed by Inspector Teal, the overweight, gum-chewing, but very intelligent detective featured in the previous book. The Saint is confident that he can get at Vargas despite the police presence, but it turns out that he doesn't need to. Just before Templar and his gang turn up, Marius launches his own attack and manages to extract Vargan. So the Saint and his crew ambush Marius' gang and grab Vargan. They manage to get Vargan away to the Saint's own hideout in the countryside, but Templar's car is wrecked in the process and they have to abandon it – leading to the certainty that Teal will be able to trace the car back to Templar in a day or two at the most. The situation deteriorates from there. Both Teal and Marius are after Templar and his associates. Marius' gang kidnaps Patricia, and hostages are taken in return. The Saint's really up against it in this story, his love for Patricia blinds him to all danger as he attempts to rescue her. His gang is separated by circumstances and everyone has to act on their own initiative. Most of the characters are brought together in a dangerous confrontation at the end of the book, and – without giving any spoilers away – Simon Templar does not turn out to be the hero of this story. The overall tone of this book is a lot darker than the previous two. There's a real sense that Simon Templar has got himself out of his depth this time, Patricia is put in serious danger and it does look like the Saint and his friends are going to have to leave the country before the police catch up with them. The situation is salvaged to a certain extent by someone else's quick thinking, but even then the story ends on a cliffhanger. Normally I space the reading of series out a bit, but in this case I'll probably be starting on the next volume shortly, since I understand that it's a direct sequel. The characters are mostly well-drawn in this book. The Saint's motivations and actions are understandable, even though I didn't agree with them. Patricia gets a fair amount of coverage in the early part of the book, and does come across as a strong, independent woman. She still ends up being the damsel who needs rescuing, but never a helpless damsel. Teal is easily the best supporting character – slow-witted and out of shape to all appearances, but with a very logical detective's mind and the ability to handle himself in a fight. I do wonder if Charteris missed a trick by not writing a few solo stories for Mr Teal, in addition to the Saint series. Marius is a classic villain, physically both threatening and repulsive, and totally ruthless in pursuit of money – at one point he even shoots one of his own men who's in the way through no fault of his own. Vargan, unfortunately has no redeeming qualities – he's a straightforward mad/amoral scientist, who cares only about the money and recognition his invention can bring him, regardless of the destruction it can bring about. It would have been more interesting if he'd been a likeable character who Templar still felt the need to kill. Also disappointing are the characters of Conway and Kent, the Saint's helpers. As in the previous book, I find the various members of the Saint's gang difficult to tell apart – they all seem to be the same type, young, athletic upper middle-class types who probably went to public school and have enough money so they can afford to run cars without apparently having jobs (and cars were mostly still owned by quite wealthy people when this book was written). Despite its flaws, it's still a book worth reading – it's fast-moving and Simon Templar is as likeable as ever, despite his intentions towards Vargan. I wouldn't say it's as good as the first two books, but overall I'd give it 6/10.