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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Saint Saga Nş 01, 5 Feb 2006
"Meet The Tiger" (later retitled "The Saint meets the Tiger") published in 1928, was Leslie Charteris's first book in the Saint Saga (even though Hodder & Stoughton later pretended that Enter the Saint was, presumably because they weren't the publishers of the former).
It's a useful (though not infallible) rule of thumb that if a book doesn't hook you by the end of the first page, it's not going to. Here are the first two paragraphs of "Meet the Tiger":
'Baycombe is a village on the North of Devon coast that is so isolated from civilisation that even at the height of the summer holiday season it is neglected by the rush of lean and plump, tall and short, papas, mammas, and infants. Consequently, there was some sort of excuse for a man who had taken up his dwelling there falling into the monotony of regular habits -- even for a man who had only lived there for three days -- even (let the worst be known) for a man so unconventional as Simon Templar.
It was not so very long after Simon Templar had settled down in Baycombe that the peacefully sedate village became most unsettled, and things began to happen there that shocked and flabbergasted its peacefully sedate inhabitants, as will be related; but at first Simon Templar found Baycombe as dull as it had been for the last six hundred years.'
Not the greatest opening Leslie Charteris ever wrote -- he was to become pretty skillful later -- but quite respectable for a young man of 21 in only his third book. The character so introduced, of course, was to become the longest-running fictional hero of the 20th century.
Even at this early stage, the Saint (plausibly from his initials -- but you knew that) is a more well-developed, more travelled and certainly more eccentric character than his near-contemporary, Bulldog Drummond. There are few of the wilder parts of the world which he has not visited, and few of those in which he has not had adventures. He has won a gold rush in South Africa, and lost his holding in a poker game twenty-four hours later. He has run guns into China, whisky into the United States and perfume into England. He deserted after a year in the Spanish Foreign Legion (Drummond would have been horrified at the idea of joining, let alone deserting).
Likewise Patricia Holm, the Saint's companion in so many later adventures, is a much more interesting heroine than boring little Phyllis Drummond, who exists only to be kidnapped and rescued -- someone whom the swine have got, or might get, and nothing more.
The elements of the plot are pretty much the standard stuff of the day: a debonair hero for the reader to identify with; a million dollars in gold stolen from a Chicago bank by a mysterious mastermind known as The Tiger; a gang of ruthless criminals; and of course a damsel in distress. What separates this from the majority of such efforts is the way Charteris plays with these elements -- tongue clearly in cheek, in places -- and weaves a story that carries you along from first to last. Some of the characters (Algy, for instance, or Aunt Agatha) are so skillfully drawn that you feel you'd recognise them if they walked into your local pub.
Other characters that recur later include Simon's faithful manservant Orace, and -- briefly, in Knight Templar -- Detective Inspector Carn.
From what I can make out, "Meet The Tiger" is very difficult to get hold of; but if you want to read the Saint books it's worth making the effort. They're definitely best if read in the right order.
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by Leslie Charteris
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