A direct sequel to The Saint Closes the Case, The Avenging Saint focuses on Simon Templar’s efforts to get revenge for the death of one of his lieutenants in that book. Unlike the sci-fi stylings of The Saint Closes the Case, The Avenging Saint feels more like a James Bond novel, with the Saint and company rushing to stop a new world war from igniting due to the machinations of arms dealer Rayt Marius:
“Now see here. Roger, you’ll come with me, and help me locate and start up the kite. Sonia, I want you to scrounge round and find a couple of helmets and a couple of pairs of goggles. Angel Face’s outfit is bound to be around the house somewhere, and he’s probably got some spares. After that, find me another nice long coil of rope—I’ll bet they’ve got plenty—and your job’s done. Lessing”—he looked across at the millionaire, who had risen to his feet at last—“it’s about time you did something for your life. You find some stray bits of string, without cutting into the beautiful piece that Sonia’s going to find for me, and amuse yourself splicing large and solid chairs onto Freeman, Hardy, and Willis over in the corner. Then they’ll be properly settled to wait here till I come back for them. Is that all clear?”
The Avenging Saint features just about everything you’d want from a Leslie Charteris novel: sharp dialogue, violent action and daring escapes. It’s not as poignant as The Saint Closes the Case, but it does its job well enough, further developing the characters and providing a fun story. It’s not thought-provoking literature, but that hardly makes it bad.
Put simply, if you enjoy thrillers and/or have read Charteris’ other novels, you’ll enjoy The Avenging Saint.
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Read Next: Enter the Saint by Leslie Charteris