''The Saint in Pursuit'' is the title of a 1970 mystery novel featuring the character of

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 ...

, alias "The Saint". The novel is credited to

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.Fleming Lee Fleming Lee (December 19, 1933 – December 24, 2012), born Fleming Lee Blitch, was an American author, best known for his collaborations with Leslie Charteris on his series of "Saint" novels. Fleming was born in St. Augustine, Florida to Looni ...

and is adapted from a

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

story by Charteris. Charteris served in an editorial capacity on the adaptation. It was the first full-length Saint novel since 1964's ''

Vendetta for the Saint ''Vendetta for the Saint'' is a 1964 mystery novel featuring the character of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint". ''Vendetta for the Saint'' was the first full-length Saint novel published since ''The Saint Sees it Through'', 18 years earlier. A te ...

'' and the first to be based upon a Charteris story since the author's final solo work, '' The Saint in the Sun'' in 1963. The book was first published in the United States by

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 ...

in 1970, and in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

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

the same year. The book was written several years earlier, and according to Saint historian

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 ...

had been written by Lee as a replacement for ''

Bet on the Saint ''Bet on the Saint'' is the title of an unpublished novel by Fleming Lee (credited to Leslie Charteris), featuring the character of criminal-turned-detective Simon Templar (alias "The Saint"), created by Charteris in 1928. The novel was written in ...

'', another comic strip

novelization A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent of ...

that had been rejected for publication.

Plot summary

References

* Burl Barer, ''The Saint: A Complete History in Print, Radio, Film and Television 1928-1992''. Jefferson, N.C.: MacFarland, 2003 (originally published in 1992), pp. 213–215 (2003 edition). 1970 British novels Simon Templar books The Crime Club books Novels based on comics {{1970s-mystery-novel-stub