Call For The Saint

The Saint #27

by Leslie Charteris

The book consisted of the following stories:

The King of The Beggars
The Masked Angel

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, British Literature, Detective, Adventure

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, Leslie Charteris was a half-Chinese, half English author of primarily mystery fiction, as well as a screenwriter. He was best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint."

Reviews

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ad hoc read May 2024

This very old dusty hardback ex-library book has been sitting on my shelves for many a year, since I bought it in a charity shop for 30p just to read at some point and reminisce about my younger days when I really used to both enjoy reading, and enjoy watching the wonderful Roger Moore as Simon Templar.
All those Saint paperbacks I had are long gone in the terrible, spiteful and ever tragic, sell Adrian's books episode.
So whenever I see one cheap I always buy it with the hope that one day I will look inside and see my name (I used to write my name and the date I bought the book inside the cover, then had a wonderful paper (pre excel) filing system with all my books listed by author and genre - how nerdy eh ?? 😬😬 )
Needless to say , in the 30+ years since the library tragedy I have never found a single one of the thousands of books I lost.

But all this maudlin reminiscing is a big digression. This book Call for the Saint, has two wonderful stories from the Saint's days in America, where he was ably supported by the enigmatic Hoppy Uniatz. And in the second story we also have the Saint's long term girlfriend and right hand woman, Patricia Holm.
Both of these are great stories, so easy to read, just enjoyable, fun and worth spending a few hours reading if, like me , you enjoy golden age detectives.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars (I wish Goodreads would allow half-stars!)

This consists of two stories:

"The King of the Beggars" (1947) - Simon finds himself investigating the infamous King of the Beggars, a master criminal who extorts money from the beggars in Chicago - pay up or die. One beggar, a blind former actor, refused and paid for his defiance with his life. Simon is drawn into the case when he saves the life of what appears to be an elderly beggar woman - who turns out to be an old friend of the dead man.

"The Masked Angel" (1948) - a masked boxer is mowing down the opposition. No one can stand against him. Finally, he kills an opponent - or did he?

The quality of these stories is fair, but not great. "Beggars" is more interesting (at least to me) than "Angel," but I'm not a fan of boxing. Simon has an interesting sidekick, "Hoppy" Uniatz, a rather stupid, but loyal American ex-con that the Saint picked up somewhere. Despite Simon's relationship with Patricia "Pat" Holm, he flirts with Monica Varing in "Beggars" and Connie Grady in "Angel." In fact, I think a lot more than flirting goes on in "Beggars." Monogamy is not Simon's strong point. The stories were fairly entertaining, but not up to the Saint's usual quality.

[Leew49 · Rating 2 out of 5]

During the first half of the 20th century, gentleman detectives comprised a significant part of crime fiction: Ellery Queen, Philo Vance, Bulldog Drummond, The Falcon, and Simon Templar aka The Saint. Witty, erudite, and comfortable in all social strata, Templar and the rest were nontraditional crime solvers who approached mysteries almost like a hobby. They were casual and often privileged supermen, equal to any challenge, whether intellectual or physical.

CALL FOR THE SAINT is two distinct novellas collected in one volume. "The King of the Beggars" is about a behind the scenes criminal mastermind who extracts protection money from beggars in New York City (Templar's base of operations). "The Masked Angel" is a less believable story about rigging professional boxing matches which requires our gentleman hero to get in the ring himself as a substitute for the heavyweight champion (!)

Like much of the writing of the time, Charteris's vocabulary is large and flowery, given to excesses of purple prose and exaggeratedly romantic descriptions of people and scenery. A description of a slow prize fight includes the following:

"Jeers swept in derisive breakers over the two Ferdinands in the ring without in the least disturbing the equilibrium of their mitt minuet."

You get the idea.

I found the two novellas dated but still somewhat entertaining. The idea of a hero detective who is always more than equal to the task goes back at least as far as Sherlock Holmes, and probably reached its unrealistic zenith during this era. Good tongue in cheek reading for anyone interested in detective fiction and its development over the years.

[Rick Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

This title consists of two stories, The King of the Beggars and The Masked Angel.

The King of the Beggars

Major characters:

Monica Varing, actress
Junior, a thug
Fingers Shultz, a thug
Sammy de Leg, old pal of Hoppy's
Frankie Weiss, the in-between
The King of the Beggars
Mrs. Laura Wingate, a society dame
Stephen Elliott, philanthropist
Detective Lieutenant Alvin Kearney
Simon Templar
Hoppy Uniatz

Locale: Chicago

Synopsis: The Saint stumbles upon a protection racket being worked in Chicago. The King of the Beggars extorts protection money from street beggars. The Saint and actress Monica Varing team up, in disguise, to infiltrate the organization and unmask the King. No middle class here, we alternate between the alleys and high society parties. Good account of the dirty Chicago of the 1930's.

The Masked Angel

Major characters:

Dr. Spangler
Torpedo Smith, a prizefighter
Barrelhouse Bilinski, a.k.a The Masked Angel, a prizefighter
Michael Grady, manager of the Manhattan Arena
Connie Grady, his daughter
Steve Nelson, Connie's finace
Whitey Mullins, old pal of Hoppy Uniatz, works at the Arena
Karl, a thug
Simon Templar
Hoppy Uniatz
Inspector John Henry Fernack

Locale: New York City

Synopsis: The Saint attends a fight in which The Masked Angel knocks out Torpedo Smith, for good - he is dead, but the actual cause is not known. The Angel wins every fight, even those he was not favored. The Saint is suspicious that Dr. Spangler has done something to give the Angel an unfair advantage. The Saint takes away the Angel's gloves for examination. The Masked Angel is to fight Steve Nelson next for the championship, but Steve meets his end, and The Saint substitutes for him in the ring.

Review: Unlike many adventures based on sports, even those who do not follow prizefighting can follow the action in this account. The Saint is in good form as he chases down the mystery of what happened to Torpedo Smith. Much attention is given to following the trail of a handgun - which had not been used, so why bother? And we always look forward to Patricia Holm, but she makes only a cameo appearance.

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two of Charteris's better novellas: "The King of the Beggars" and "The Masked Angel." Both show a return to form for Charteris, whose work during World War II began to decline significantly. No longer a G-Man, Simon Templar is back in his position somewhere between the law and the underworld. Charteris also restores the florid style found in prewar volumes--maybe a little too much at times. He also brings back Hoppy Uniatz in both stories and Patricia Holm in the second story. Apparently, respectability is somewhat more important than in the prewar world, because Patricia is no longer a live-in girlfriend but a woman on her own who, however, allows her jealousy to overflow much more easily than the prior incarnations of Pat. "The King of the Beggars" has a nice twist that arises from the very name of the story, which is about the criminal organization of beggars and vagabonds into a situation in which they must pay a percentage of their take to the "king." As for "The Masked Angel," it's the longer of the two works and has Simon working to uncover a plot to fix boxing bouts. Both stories were also made into better than average episodes for the Roger Moore television series, although neither matches the quality of the printed versions, here.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating between 3.5 & 4

an entertaining 2 novella title from the Saint's American period.
the first about extortion of beggars is slightly more entertaining, mainly due to the mystery nature of the story and the reveal of the villain in the piece. the second about boxing is quite straight forward really and is more of a straight thriller in nature i think.
both of these stories started life as episodes in the radio series and were later adapted by Charteris, as he did with a number of radio and tv episodes. their origins are not visible at all and the stories are still as entertaining now as they were in the 1940's.
overall highly recommend this book and these novellas for fan's of the Saint, new readers just meeting the Saint or those who liked the various films and television shows and wanted to try the original source material.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two novella sized tales in this book featuring Simon Templar and both good yarns...the first looks at a tale involving disappearing beggars and a shadowy 'king of beggars' figure who seems to be organising moneys taken etc...and the second is a sporting yarn involving probable dodgy tactics.
Both are great fun and although the Saint in himself is less wordy in his speech than in some of the tales I have read the characters and Templar in particular drive a great tale.
Always a pleasure really finding these books in charity shops and the like...stopgap reads in some ways as I don't have to invest much time but there is enough substance to entertain me.
I'm honesty the Saint needs to return to film or T.V. soon.

[Martin Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick thoughts: Two short stories. First story better than the second but both enjoyable. Leslie Charteris can still deliver charm, grace and Saintly schmooze. So easy to imagine George Sanders (the definitive Simon Templar) as you turn the pages. Both set in America, the first story covers exploitation and murder of homeless beggars with The Saint donning disguise to reveal 'The King'. The second story sees Simon Templar box the Masked Angel to work out his suspicious winning streak and uncover the suspicious death of an opponent.

[Paul Magnussen · Rating 4 out of 5]

1948’s Call for the Saint marks a partial, but nonetheless welcome, return to the old (1930s) Saint from the sanitised and lobotomised G-man of the War years.

In the first story, set in Chicago, the Saint works to find the brain behind a protection racket; in the second, he unravels the mystery behind the rise of an apparently talentless New York boxer.

Both stories, unusually at this late date, also feature Patricia Holm and Hoppy Uniatz — the latter in particularly fine form.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining light read - two Saint cases set in the US.

[Frances]

My version had some pages at the back missing so I have read to Page 176.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog here in June 2001.

The first story in this Saint book, The King of the Beggars, is much better than the second, The Masked Angel. It deals with an investigation of a protection racket targeting Chicago beggars, and rather surprisingly treats it as though doing so is a new idea; I can't really imagine that pre-war gangsters hadn't thought of it. It is typical of the series, and an exciting thriller.

The Masked Angel tackles match rigging in boxing, with a former no hoper given a big buildup as the Masked Angel and suddenly - suspiciously - winning all his fights. Apart from the fact that I don't like boxing, the story is rather predictable and the descriptions of the fights don't manage to convey much in the way of atmosphere. The idea that many fights have been fixed was maybe more surprising in 1948 than it is now, so the story might have dated. It is not Charteris at his best even so.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good pair of Saint stories, both set in the US. Fun fast read.

[Federico Kereki · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit better than the previous novels... but the Saint fighting a heavyweight boxer?