A review by tony
Alias the Saint by Leslie Charteris

2.0

This one was quite a struggle to get through. Very little of the traditional Saint-ly charm is in evidence here, doubtless because, as I wish I'd known in advance, these aren't really Saint stories at all, but thinly repurposed early Charteris tales with the character names substituted later — or, in the case of “The National Debt” (aka “The Secret of Beacon Inn”), not even so much substituted as having the lead character, Rameses Smith, simply turned into an alias for Templar. The first, “The Story of a Dead Man” at least has a few positive glimpses of what was to come later, but in general these are all rather poor. ★☆