Amazon imprint Thomas and Mercer will publish a whopping forty-nine Saint novels by Leslie Charteris this summer. The new Amazon Saint library will arrive in two waves, releasing books on June 24th and July 29th in paperback. Kindle editions already came out on March 18th. The jacket designs are quite cool, sporting an early 1960s vibe with simple black-and-white imagery radiating from a dynamic ellipse motif, muted color palette, retro typeface, and the original Saint stick figure by Charteris. Click cover images below for a closer look. In addition, Mulholland recently published thirty-five of the Saint titles in the UK with more modern cover designs. It's a great time to be a Saint fan! Charteris wrote fifty novels and collections about his character Simon Templar. The Saint also appeared in many continuation stories, films, radio shows, comic strips, and notably a 1960s TV series starring Roger Moore. As I've mentioned, I loved reading these novels as a kid. And the Moore series imprinted a wonderful image in my mind of the ideal jet-setter- a well-dressed adventurer with a Volvo, plane tickets to anywhere, and that perfect hair. Imagine my disappointment when I learned that "Jet-Setter" wasn't a possible career choice! I was also intrigued to learn there were Saint Clubs for boys during the mid-century. In my imagination, groups of good-hearted Bowery Boys met in cellar gymnasiums to read the exploits of Simon Templar and to practice boxing, archery, and billiards. I was never one to join clubs as a kid, but this image of brotherly Saint fans really appealed to me. Learn about the real Saint Club at the Leslie Charteris website. I'm excited to see this library of novels return to bookshelves and win over new readers. Learn about The Saint: Leslie Charteris, The Saint: A Complete History, George Sanders Saint Collection, The Saint seasons 5 and 6 streaming on Amazon, The Saint radio show starring Vincent Price, and The Saint.org website. Are you a book collector? Check out our recent posts: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang50th anniversary, my interview about collecting Ian Fleming, and other links below.
