Book Review: The Avenging Saint by Leslie Charteris

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I've just finished the fourth book in the adventures of Simon Templar - “The Avenging Saint”. First published with the title “Knight Templar” in 1930, this is a direct sequel to “The Saint Closes the Case”, which I read and reviewed recently. SPOILER WARNING As stated, this book is a sequel to “The Saint Closes the Case”. If you haven't read that book yet, and don't want to know what happens in it, don't read this review. At the end of the last book, the Saint's friend Norman Kent died while covering the escape of Templar and the rest of his friends. “The Avenging Saint” is set three months later – although the author states that the events of this book take place three years after “Meet The Tiger”, whereas the previous volume said only a year had passed. If Leslie Charteris was that bad at keeping continuity straight, I should probably give up trying to work out a logical timeline for the Saint stories. Back to the plot: Following the events of “The Saint Closes the Case”, Templar and his group managed to escape to continental Europe. The Saint hasn't given up on his vendetta against Rayt Marius, the ugly, intimidating giant who is also a diabolical genius and unscrupulous millionaire – as well as being the man who shot Norman Kent dead. Complicating things is the fact that the Saint's identity is now known to the police, and arrest warrants have been issued for him and his associates. Having somehow persuaded his strong-willed girlfriend Patricia Holm to keep herself out of harm's way by joining a friend on a boating trip, the Saint and Roger Conway – the only member of Templar's original gang to still be active - have followed Marius back to London, where Marius and his nominal employer Prince Rudolf appear to be working on another scheme to start a general war in Europe, to the benefit of the shadowy group of financiers that Marius represents. Templar learns that Marius and Prince Rudolf have met with an unsavoury character called Heinrich Dussel. Following Dussel back to his house, the Saint observes Dussel apparently taking an invalid in, but Templar deduces that the invalid is actually a kidnap victim. Staging a one-man rescue using his normal improvisational tactics, Simon Templar gets the kidnap victim back to his hideout. When he and Roger Conway take off the kidnap victim's disguise they find that it's actually Sonia Delmar, the beautiful daughter of an American steel magnate. Sonia is in Britain to marry the British oil tycoon Sir Isaac Lessing, in what seems to be an arranged marriage, but she was drugged at and Embassy function and kidnapped by Marius' gang. Sonia is good-looking, strong-willed and intelligent, and both Simon and Roger are immediately both strongly attracted to each other. This sets up a sub-plot where Conway becomes jealous of the feelings that he imagines Sonia has for Templar. Although Templar has a theory about what Marius' current plan is, and what Sonia's role in it is intended to be, he needs more information. Sonia agrees to let herself be re-captured so that Templar and Conway can see how Marius is going to use her to further his plans, with the expectation that she'll be rescued before any real harm can come to her. This is as much Sonia's idea as the Saint's – Sonia's a very gutsy woman, with similar personality traits to Patricia Holm – presumably this similarity is the reason Patricia's been left out of this story. Simon's next move is to bluff his way into the hotel suite where Prince Rudolf is staying – despite being a prominent foreign dignatory, the Crown Prince doesn't seem to have much in the way of security. After going through his usual routine of confronting Prince Rudolf and Marius, and provoking them with his usual wit and sarcasm, the Saint manages to conceal himself in the Princes' bathroom, where he is able to eavesdrop on some of their plans before leaving his well-know stickman logo on the wall and departing. In the meantime, Sonia is re-kidnapped by Marius' gang and taken to an isolated house on the coast. Having gathered enough intelligence to follow the trail, Simon and Roger follow them down and locate the house. Simon sends Roger to London to go and get Sonia's fiance Lessing. In the meantime, a ship arrives to collect Sonia, before the Saint can extract her from the house. Marius' plan to bring war to Europe is quite nebulous, with a lot of details left out of the story, but part of it involves forcefully marrying Sonia to Alexis Vasilloff, a high-ranking Soviet official. The idea is that this news will provoke Lessing into using his influence with southern European governments to trigger a war. Prince Rudolf's unnamed country is ready to invade Ukraine, and the Balkans is expected to break out in violence somehow. In the resulting general war, both Prince Rudolf and Vasilloff expect to find themselves in a position to dominate Europe. In reality, Marius doesn't care about either country – he's just using these vain and power-mad political leaders for his own ends. I don't expect massive amounts of realism from a Saint story, but this plot is far-fetched even by my flexible standards. I know having large amounts of money can buy you influence, but the idea that hidden cabals of rich people can have enough influence to start wars at will doesn't stand up very well when you think about it. Supreme power always rests with governments, and they'll act in their own perceived self-interest. That doesn't stop it being an entertaining story though. The story gathers pace, with a daring ocean hijack, followed by a tense confrontation between the two gangs at Marius' hideout. Needless to say, the Saint saves the day using his particular brand of daring improvisation and talent for witty remarks and sarcasm. But Simon Templar's talent for brilliant improvisation is matched by Rayt Marius' talent for planning. It seems that every time the Saint defeats one of his plans, Marius has a backup plan ready to go – resulting in Simon and Roger making a last-minute desperate dash in a Tiger Moth biplane, culminating in an arial stunt worthy of an Indiana Jones movie. Despite the far-fetched premise, this book is a good read overall, with plenty of action and the Saint's ready wit on display. Simon Templar is pushed almost to his limit at times, with him delivering a very serious monologue on the evils of war at one point, before switching back to his more usual cheerful and optimistic persona. I think I prefer him going after more regular crooks instead of involving himself in international politics. I reckon it's a slight improvement on the last book, so I'd give it 7/10.