Leslie Charteris: Señor Saint (1959)

Edition: Pan, 1966
Review number: 940

Four stories set in Latin America (Baja California, Mexico City, Havana and Panama) make up this collection. They are all different variations on the theme of a swindle, some from the point of view of the innocent victims - who are not necessarily the characters you expect - and some from that of the swindler.

This is well trodden, familiar territory for Charteris, and the stories are typical, charming and amusing little thrillers if nothing very special. The original appearances of the stories was in 1953 and 1954, and this is given in the prefatory material of this edition, something unusual in the Saint series. This is probably because the Cuban revolution occurred before the book version appeared, so that the situation in Havana had changed, and the publisher wanted the reader to be aware that this was the case.