Oh look! It's The Saint. Younger readers might not have heard of him, but older readers over a certain age will probably remember him well. They might even have watched a young Roger Moore playing The Saint (aka Simon Templar) in the TV series of the same name.ALIAS THE SAINT tells of three adventures of Simon Templar. In "The Story of a Dead Man' we find the Saint supervising an office in which many irregular things take place; there is a network of mystery about the firm of Vanney's Ltd. and Pamela Marlowe, who is employed there as a secretary, is very puzzled--as indeed she has a good reason to be, for she and the Saint are soon in a very dangerous situation, shared (curiously enough) by Chief Inspector Claud Eustace Teal of Scotland Yard. "The Impossible Crime" displays the Saint pitting his wits against a gang of smuggling crooks; there is an amazing battle in a London square, where a night porter is shot dead. "The National Debt" opens with the Saint making a trip to a quiet seaside village, hot on the track of three men who have kidnapped a girl analytical chemist whom they hope to compel to carry out a nefarious scheme.
The three novellas in this collection come from fairly early on in The Saint's career. They were first published in the early 1930s, and people who recall Templar's smoother, newer, incarnations might be surprised at how much of a roughneck he is in this book. He is not adverse to working on the wrong side of the law, and is quite prepared to use lethal violence if he feels it is necessary. It is quite clear that it is only his own cunning that keeps him safe from the law--as well as the villains he tackles. Because, criminal though he is, Templar is also one of the Good Guys, and someone you'd want on your side when the going gets tough.
(This is a fairly early Pan paperback. I only have one older in my collection!)
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