''The Saint on TV'' is a collection of two mystery novellas by

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

, continuing the adventures of the sleuth

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 un ...

a.k.a. "The Saint", 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.United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 1968 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 fi ...

, 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 European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

later that year by

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 publishe ...

. This is the first time since 1948's '' Call for the Saint'' that the novella format had been used in the series; with a few exceptions where full-length novels were published, the novella format would remain the norm until the series concluded in the early 1980s. It is the first of three Saint books to first see publication in 1968, which was also the 40th anniversary of the character's introduction. This was the first of several volumes of stories novelising episodes of the 1962-69 television series '' The Saint''. As with the previous volume, '' Vendetta for the Saint'', Charteris receives front-cover author credit, when in fact other authors actually wrote the text. In his introduction to this book, Charteris names Fleming Lee as his hand-picked successor, and indicates his preference for having original storylines by

John Kruse John Kruse (1921–2004) was an English film and television screenwriter, director and novelist. He is mostly remembered for his work on ITC classic TV series '' The Saint'', as well as several films of the franchise, and as the author of th ...

be used whenever possible. Charteris identifies this process of

ghost writing A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

as "an unprecedented experiment in team work". Charteris remained in editorial control of the books for the remainder of the series, which continued until 1983's '' Salvage for the Saint''.

Stories

The book consisted of the following stories: #"The Death Game" - based on the story by

, and the

teleplay A teleplay is a screenplay or script used in the production of a scripted television program or series. In general usage, the term is most commonly seen in reference to a standalone production, such as a television film, a television play, or a ...

by Harry W. Junkin #"The Power Artist" - based on the teleplay by Kruse. 1968 novels Simon Templar books American novellas The Crime Club books {{1960s-mystery-novel-stub