Entertaining adventure novel

The Saint Closes the Case (The Saint Series) - Leslie Charteris

Thomas & Mercer is re-releasing the Simon Templar books for a new generation. It really is astonishing how they both do and do not stand up since their original publication date in the 1930s.

 

This is also not the hard-boiled Saint we see in later books (some of which I read in high school); this is a younger, more humorous Simon Templar. With his fancy, fast, fictional automobiles and numerous homes, we are given the impression that he is quite well-to-do ... despite the author's assertions that Templar is "everyman.'

 

This is actually the second book in the series. In this outing, Templar and his lady friend Patricia stumble upon a demonstration of a weapon of mass destruction. Templar then goes about trying to stop the inventor and his financial backers from selling it to *any* government, whether His Majesty's or another.

 

There are a good many car chases, narrow escapes, and the other sorts of things that one might expect from adventure books of this type. It was an entertaining read ... but I don't know how much modern audiences would like it given the changes in warfare since the book was written.