The Saint on Guard by Leslie Charteris (1943/1944)

 

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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). 

This book comprises two novellas: The Black Market and The Sizzling Saboteur.

The Black Market

The Saint is in New York City and learns from Inspector John Henry Fernack about a black market in precious Iridium, urgently needed for the war effort. He meets two industrial manufacturers who have been forced to buy it on the black market: Milton Ourley and Gabriel Linnet. Ourley's wife, Titania Ourley, takes a liking to the Saint. Urbane Allen Uttershaw is the head of the mining company which produces the Iridium. The Saint drops in to Linnet's home to find him dead, and a beautiful decoy, Barbara Sinclair, trying to set him to take the fall.

The Sizzling Saboteur

The Saint is driving across Texas and encounters a burned body in the road. Simon stops to assist, and the victim's (Henry Stephens Matson) last words appear to name his killer(s). He consults with the police, who are adamant it was a suicide. Simon doesn't believe it, and tracks down his girlfriend, Olga Ivanovitch. Through her, he gets a lead on the three named by Matson: Johan Blatt and Fritzie Weinbach. The third killer, Siegfried Maris, is more elusive. Simon finds that Matson was working in war production plants, and was a saboteur. He had failed to complete a sabotage mission for the Axis, and was murdered in revenge. The killers catch up to Simon and Olga, who wind up captives. 

Review: 

These two novellas are set in World War II-era USA. Both deal with bad guys messing with the war effort for personal gain or military advantage. 

The Black Market has several clever story lines, especially the use of decoy Barbara Sinclair to distract The Saint. The Sizzling Saboteur was not as engaging, and the whole setup of the killing seemed false - I would think agents out for a revenge killing would do something a bit more 'professional'. Simon's informer, Po't Arthur, is an enjoyable character.

Women are not too well represented in these stories, just one in each, both cast as elegant bad girls; although Olga turns out be on our side (the names are a tipoff - Olga is clearly Russian - therefore an ally. Johan, Weinbach, and Siegfried clearly German - thus the enemy). 

The stories do give a feel for the high wartime feelings present on the home front USA, when war production was the #1 priority. 

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