Call for the Saint

Call for the Saint

First UK edition
Author	Leslie Charteris
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	The Saint
Genre	Mystery fiction
Publisher	The Crime Club (US) Hodder & Stoughton (UK)
Publication date	1948
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Preceded by	The Saint Sees it Through
Followed by	Saint Errant

Call for the Saint is a collection of two mystery novellas by Leslie Charteris, first published in the United States in 1948 by The Crime Club, and later the same year in the United Kingdom by Hodder and Stoughton. This book continues the adventures of Charteris' creation, Simon Templar, alias The Saint. "The Masked Angel" features the first literary appearance of Patricia Holm, Templar's on-again, off-again partner/girlfriend, since 1940's The Saint in Miami.

This was the final volume in which Charteris used the novella format for telling his stories; the format would be revived again in the 1960s by which time other authors were writing the stories. For the remainder of his time writing the series, Charteris would use the short story format and the next Templar book to feature novellas would be The Saint on TV, published in 1968.

Stories

The book consists of the following stories:

1. The King of The Beggars: Templar and Hoppy are recruited by a theatre actress to investigate the murder of a beggar and a criminal ring shaking down other needy people.
2. The Masked Angel: When a boxer dies in the ring under mysterious circumstances, the Saint, Hoppy and Pat Holm investigate in hopes of preventing the Masked Angel from claiming another victim. A minor character in this story later plays a major role in one of the short stories featured in the 1955 collection The Saint on the Spanish Main.

Television adaptation

"The King of the Beggars" was adapted as an episode of the TV series The Saint which first aired on November 14, 1963 during the second season.