"The Man Who was Clever"

I'm working my way through The First Saint Omnibus--a collection of thirteen novellas featuring Leslie Charteris' Simon Templar. They're arranged chronologically, from a story from the Saint's earliest appearance (Enter the Saint) through the later years.

The first story in the set is "The Man Who was Clever." It is a straightforward caper, with few elements of mystery or espionage. The plot revolves around Templar's efforts to bring down a criminal who uses a beauty-supply store as a front for drug dealing (sound familiar?). Simon Templar, also known as the Saint, does not seem as well-established as he will later become. Heis in the process of establishing his position as the "Robin Hood of modern crime," the man criminals fear. His character, therefore, is much more opaque than I expect it to be in future stories--he's building a mystery, creating a persona (hey! I wonder if this could tie in with my discussion of personhood over at General Thinker).

Still, this lack of insight into thought-processes of the Saint make him into a bit too much of a superman--he can, obviously, do anything and get out of anything. Not that that's a problem, as a rule; however, a humanizing touch here and there would go a long way toward making Templar more believable (remember how ubermensch Ellery Queen is humanized by the author's tongue-in-cheek tone? Something along these lines would be in order here).

The pace is sound and the plot enjoyable, and though everything is not quite in place, I look forward to see the development of the Saintly formula in future stories and novels.