Meet the tiger.

The introduction to another long series of books, radio and film, this story was disavowed by the author. Only his third novel, the introduction for a 1980 reprint states "I can see so much wrong with it that I am humbly astonished that it got published at all". While rough at times, it was a decent thriller, and contains passages that really shine.

Simon Templar in this novel is more a dilettante than the Robin Hood character he would become. Established in a small seaside English village, he is there to root out the Tiger, a gang leader who stole a large sum of gold in Chicago - then return that gold for a 20% reward. In this story, we don't know who the Tiger is - and neither does Simon. This town has a large cast of characters with an interest in this business.

These characters are also hit and miss, some pure caricature. One is a direct nod to the writing of contemporary Wodehouse (What ho?). The strongest character is Patricia Holm, and she carried much of the latter half of the story. She occurred frequently in later stories, but never in the radio or television stories.

Much like Sherlock Holmes, the Saint's stories appear in a scatter of novels, novellas and short stories. While not the fully fledged gentleman bandit he would be come, there are enough pieces of him here to make the book worth reading (despite what the author said). One must also ignore the wrap up to the story, as Charteris didn't plan on a series when he wrote this novel. I have a trove of these stories on my eReader, and look forward to many more pleasurable evenings spent with The Saint.