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Title: Catch The Saint
Subtitle: The Saint, Book 44
Author: Leslie Charteris
Narrator: John Telfer
Format: Unabridged
Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
Language: English
Release date: 11-10-15
Publisher: Audible Studios
Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Suspense
Publisher's Summary:
On an errand of mercy for an elderly neighbour, Simon Templar meets a distraught but beautiful damsel in distress. It seems she is missing her brother...and someone else is missing a Rembrandt.
Soon the Saint discovers the two are connected, and hes on the trail of "The Masterpiece Merchant". In Philadelphia, the Saint meets a lovely young heiress at a charity ball only to discover that another member of the party is a leading figure in organised crime.
Leslie Charteris was born in Singapore and moved to England in 1919. He left Cambridge University early when his first novel was accepted for publication. He wrote novels about the Saint throughout his life, becoming one of the 20th century's most prolific and popular authors.
Members Reviews:
A great couple of adventures!
This book consists of two adventures, one in London and the other in Philadelphia. It contains some great surprises; you will not be disappointed.
Fraudulent labelling?
Well now. Here's how this book begins. Can you spot anything strange, dear reader?
"Every weekday morning at precisely ten o'clock, Mrs Evelyn Teabury backed her shiny black Rolls Royce from its green-doored garage in Upper Berkeley Mews and embarked on her round of London and environs.
"[...] Hatted and gloved, impeccable in spite of her reduced circumstances, she would back her well-preserved but ancient Rolls (obviously a major feature of her late husband's estate) into the street, leaving it running while she closed the green garage door [...]".
Leslie Charteris telling us twice within two paragraphs a) that she would habitually back the Rolls, and b) that the garage door is green?
Yes! You guessed it, dear reader. Although there is no trace of this information on the cover, the flyleaf clearly states that these are "two original stories by Norman Worker adapted by Flemming Lee". Oxymoronically, it still also proclaims "by Leslie Charteris".
This is only a hint of the horrors to come if you keep reading. It has often been said of good film editing, that the only time you notice it is when it's not there. Charteris's prose too flows so easily and effortlessly that it appears perfectly natural and ordinary: but here one plodding sentence follows another like the footfalls of a tired elephant. Even the worst Charteris stories (which is to say the wartime ones) were never nearly this bad.
The preface by Charteris himself shows clearly that this monstrosity had his consent. I guess he needed the money.
The cover of the edition I am reading contains the further information that this is a Crime Club selection, which greatly lowers my estimate of the Crime Club.
P.S. For a list of all Charteris's Saint books, look up "Simon Templar" (section "The Saint book series") on Wikipedia.