The Saint and the Fiction Makers
 First UK edition | |
| Author |
Fleming Lee (based upon the teleplay by John Kruse and characters created by Leslie Charteris) |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Saint |
| Genre | Mystery novel |
| Publisher | The Crime Club |
Publication date | 1968 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 211 pp |
| Preceded by | The Saint Returns |
| Followed by | The Saint Abroad |
The Saint and the Fiction Makers (some editions use the hyphenated form "Fiction-Makers") is the title of a 1968 mystery novel featuring the character of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint".[1]
The novel is credited to Leslie Charteris, who created the Saint in 1928, but the book was actually authored by Fleming Lee and is adapted from a teleplay by John Kruse written for a two-part episode of The Saint, "The Fiction Makers",[1] which first aired in December 1968 and was later released as a theatrical film.[1] As with other Saint books released during this period, Charteris served in an editorial capacity.
The book was first published in the United States by The Crime Club in 1968 (possibly before the episodes aired), and in the United Kingdom by Hodder and Stoughton in 1969. The movie starred Roger Moore as Simon Templar with Sylvia Sims.
Plot summary
Simon Templar is hired by a friend in the book publishing trade to protect one of his stars, a secretive recluse named Amos Klein who writes a popular (and lucrative) series of spy novels.
When he arrives at Klein's house in the country, he hears a woman's screams and several gunshots. Rushing to the rescue, he finds a woman tied up and gripping a revolver behind her back. After untying her, he finds out that she is "Amos Klein", a woman who adopted a male nom de plume to increase sales of her novels. She explains that she has to be able to do everything her character in the novels does and that she was just doing some research. The pair are soon kidnapped by a group of people who claim to be members of S.W.O.R.D., the evil organization from Amos Klein's novels. Their leader, "Warlock", the mastermind of the group, believes that Simon Templar must be the Amos Klein he is looking for and that the woman must be his secretary. They then find out what the kidnappers want: for Amos Klein to write the plot of their next grandiose heist.
References
- 1 2 3 Barer, Burl (1993). The Saint: A Complete History in Print, Radio, Film and Television. McFarland & Company. pp. 170, 171.
