The Saint (novel)

''The Saint'' is a

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

novel by

Burl Barer Burl Barer (born 1947 in Walla Walla, Washington) is an American author, literary historian and radio host. He is best known for his writings about the character Simon Templar. Career Fiction ''The Saint'' ''The Saint: A Complete History in ...

published by

Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing in ...

in 1997. It was based upon the screenplay for the film ''

The Saint The Saint may refer to: Fiction * Simon Templar, also known as "The Saint", the protagonist of a book series by Leslie Charteris and subsequent adaptations: ** ''The Saint'' (film series) (1938–43), starring Louis Hayward, George Sanders an ...

'', which in turn was loosely based upon the character

Simon Templar ''The Saint'' is the nickname of the fictional character Simon Templar, featured in a series of novels and short stories by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date, other authors collaborated with Charteris on books unt ...

, created by

Leslie Charteris Leslie Charteris (born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, 12 May 1907 – 15 April 1993), was a British-Chinese author of adventure fiction, as well as a screenwriter.Val Kilmer Val Edward Kilmer (born December 31, 1959) is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer found fame after appearances in comedy films, starting with ''Top Secret!'' (1984) and ''Real Genius'' (1985), as well as the military action film ...

portrayed Templar and is pictured on the book's front cover. This was the first book featuring Templar since ''

Salvage for the Saint ''Salvage for the Saint'' is the title of a 1983 mystery novel featuring the character of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint". The novel was written by Peter Bloxsom, based on the two-part ''Return of the Saint'' episode "Collision Course" by John ...

'' ended the original series of books (which began in 1928) in 1983. It is also the first Saint story to be published since Charteris' death in 1993 and the first to not be published by either

Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint (trade name), imprint of Hachette (publisher), Hachette. History Early history The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs ...

(UK) or

The Crime Club ''The Crime Club'' was an imprint of the Doubleday publishing company, which later spawned a 1946-47 anthology radio series, and a 1937-1939 film series. Literature Many classic and popular works of detective and mystery fiction had their fir ...

(US). Barer wrote the book based upon the screenplay by

Jonathan Hensleigh Jonathan Blair Hensleigh (born February 13, 1959) is an American screenwriter and film director, working primarily in the action-adventure genre, best known for writing films such as ''Jumanji'', ''Die Hard with a Vengeance'', and ''Armageddon'' ...

and

Wesley Strick Wesley Strick (born February 11, 1954) is an American screenwriter who has written such films as ''Arachnophobia (film), Arachnophobia'', ''Batman Returns'' and Martin Scorsese's remake of ''Cape Fear (1991 film), Cape Fear''. Since 2015, Strick ...

. Barer himself is a longtime fan of the Saint books and in 1993 had published a comprehensive study on the many literary, radio, and television stories featuring the character of Simon Templar. Barer uses as a framing sequence around his historical work then-current plans to launch a new film series based upon the Saint; these plans ultimately failed and the 1997 film resulted. The film only loosely adapted the Simon Templar character, making many wholesale changes to the concept of The Saint and Templar; Barer nonetheless incorporated elements from Charteris into his manuscript, including characters from past Saint books such as Roger Conway. Barer would go on to write an original Saint novel (more closely related to the character) entitled ''

Capture the Saint ''Capture the Saint'' is the title of a 1997 mystery novel by Burl Barer, featuring the character of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint" who was created by Leslie Charteris in 1928. Along with a novelization of the 1997 film, ''The Saint'', also w ...

'', which was also published in 1997. 1997 novels Simon Templar books Pocket Books books Novels based on films {{1990s-mystery-novel-stub