This book was also published as Thieve's Picnic.
About the author: Leslie Charteris (1907 – 1993), was a British-Chinese author of adventure fiction, as well as a screenwriter. He was best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of his charming hero Simon Templar, alias "The Saint". Charteris spent 55 years – 1928 to 1983 – as either writer of or custodian of Simon Templar's literary adventures, one of the longest uninterrupted spans of a single author in the history of mystery fiction, equalling that of Agatha Christie (from Wikipedia).
Major characters:
- Joris Vanlinden, an elderly Dutch gem cutter
- Christine Vanlinden, his daughter
- Reuben Graner, flamboyant master criminal
- Art Palermo, Cecil Aliston, and Lauber; Graner's thugs
- Simon Templar, The Saint
- Hoppy Uniatz, Simon's companion
Locale: The Canary Islands
Synopsis: Simon Templar is in the Canary Islands, and happens across a group of thugs (Art Palermo, Cecil Aliston, and Lauber) engaged in beating up an old man. Simon beats up the thugs and takes the old man, Joris Vanlinden, and his attractive daughter, Christine Vanlinden, off to safety.
The thugs work for Reuben Graner, a flamboyant receiver of stolen gems. Graner had forced Vanlinden to cut gems under duress, and now distrusts him and wants him out of the way; hence the beat-up. An added complication: Vanlinden was the holder of the winning ticket in the Spanish national lottery, and during the dust-up in the road, the ticket was taken. Now Simon has something Graner wants (Vanlinden), and Graner has something Simon wants (the ticket).
Simon infiltrates the Graner estate posing as a gem cutter to replace Joris. He gains the trust of Graner, but faces a problem: he has no idea how to cut gems.
Review: The setup is similar to some other Saint novels: an innocent, fragile, older man with an alluring damsel-in-distress daughter; and thugs who want what they have.
The most amusing episode is when Simon is brought to the workroom and is expected to begin cutting gems under the eye of Graner - but, of course, Simon has absolutely no idea what he is doing and has to fake his way along.
The tedious part is the long series of chase arounds in which Simon plays Graner and the three henchmen against each other, in every possible combination. There is also the requisite scene of tying up the damsel, an obligatory part of all Saint stories.
Hoppy Uniatz makes regular appearances, drinks a lot, but does not contribute much more. Simon manages to hustle to Vanlindens off to safety at the end, with an interesting bit of play-acting over a hidden microphone to fool the chasers.
No Patricia Holm this time around.
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