Review: Meet the Tiger

Meet the Tiger by Leslie Charteris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A classic pulp novel, written when the author was only 20.

Simon Templar, The Saint (so called from his initials, ST), is basically a D&D rogue - probably a Swashbuckler Rogue - with a very high Charisma score and a Chaotic Neutral alignment. He's not exactly a criminal and not exactly not a criminal; he's an adventurer who foils criminals when he can, especially if it helps the innocent, but isn't particular about doing so strictly legally. He's extremely capable at every relevant skill, such as stealth, checking for traps, lock-picking, acrobatics, and using his daggers (he doesn't like guns). That's not to say he always succeeds at everything, though; he has some tough times and some close shaves.

As a child, I watched reruns of the 1960s TV show based on the character, set in the then-present day, with Roger Moore in the lead role. I remember being puzzled that the woman he'd ended up kissing at the end of one episode was nowhere to be seen in the next episode, and there was now a new woman he was chasing. (Even as a pre-teen, monogamy made more sense to me.) This being the case, I wondered how this book was going to deal with his expressed intention to marry the love interest, a Plucky Gel named Pat, who, to the author's credit, is not a passive Damsel in Distress or a distraction from the progress of the plot, but a capable character in her own right with a stake in the outcome, who actually takes over the plot partway through and carries it forward. Would she be killed? Disillusioned? Abandoned by the Saint for her own protection? Simply dropped by the author and not mentioned again? (view spoiler)[Fortunately, it's none of these; she continued to be his girlfriend for another 20 years in publication time, playing key roles in some books, though not being mentioned in others; at one point they lived together, though they never married, a daring choice at the time. The 1960s playboy Saint was apparently influenced by the commitment-phobic James Bond and the zeitgeist - though the Saint of the books did have dalliances with women besides Pat occasionally, he generally remembered her and turned away from the alternative love interest, according to Wikipedia. (hide spoiler)]

The author later said of this book that all he could see in it were its flaws, and it does have some; the author's hand is highly visible at times, helping the protagonist avoid disaster and making sure various people are in the right places at the right times, and the ending includes a few elements which are highly unlikely if you think about them much at all. (view spoiler)[The Tiger, the for-most-of-the-book-invisible main antagonist, turns against his own men because they've betrayed him and he admires Pat and the Saint, which functions as a deus ex machina to get them out of a tight spot; the Saint manages, while bound hand and foot and talking, and hence the focus of some very keyed-up criminals, to get his sharp-edged cigarette case out of his pocket and cut through all his ropes without them noticing; the CID detective agrees on a handshake to let the Saint take the gold back to its owners in return for handing over the criminals; and the Saint and Pat sail off for America to do so, without any passports or, indeed, a change of clothes, unless they're going to somehow use the criminals' clothes - Pat (and the manservant Orace) are in bathing costumes and the Saint is in rags after his tough ordeal. (hide spoiler)] Still, it's a thumping good pulp thriller if you're willing to suspend quite a bit of disbelief and just go with the action, and plenty of popular action movies make less sense (and give their female leads, if any, a lot less agency).

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