The Saint in New York

The Saint, Book 15

By: Leslie Charteris

Narrated by: John Telfer

Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

The Saint is back – 50 audiobooks are now available starring the debonair classic crime hero.

Simon Templar is the Saint - daring, dazzling, and just a little disreputable. On the side of the law, but standing outside it, he dispenses his own brand of justice one criminal at a time.

In Prohibition-era New York, criminals rule the city: the gangsters do what they like, and pay the judges for the privilege; the few honest cops are helpless; and above them all the Big Fellow pulls the strings. With that many sinners, cleaning up the town will take a Saint...Simon Templar is a long way from home, and facing great danger from directions both expected and entirely unforeseen. But he promised to do the job; and a saint never goes back on his word.

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.

©1935 Leslie Charteris (P)2014 Audible Studios

The Saint Noir

I’m listening to the series in order, and while they’ve been rollickingly entertaining, but a bit lightweight. I rarely get the sense that Templar is ever in any sort of jeopardy and if makes any mistakes at all, they are usually trivial.

Not so with “The Saint in New York”. This is a refreshingly human Simon Templar who gets a lot wrong along the way and is in real danger of losing everything. I appreciated the introspection afforded by acting truly alone for the first time in the series.

What surprised me most was how hard boiled this book was. Nothing I’ve heard in the series made me think of Hammett or Chandler until now. This book, though, has similar notes of the man who was not mean walking some truly mean streets.

The ending was poignant and satisfying; echoes of the denouement can be found a certain savage Spenser novel.

John Telfer a limited array of character voices, but the ones he commands are all well done. There’s a generation of British actors and readers whose Americans all sound like gangsters from the 1930s, but that’s hardly a problem here. Where Telfer shines, though, is as Simon Templar. He completely inhabits the role and I’m looking forward to the next book.