LESLIE CHARTERIS’s famous sleuth has become so popular that, in addition to countless short stories and novels, lie is the hero of a comic strip, several movies, and now a very successful NBC-TV series, starring Roger Moore in the title role.
When Mr. Charteris is not doing on-the-spot research in new locations for the further adventures of Simon Templar, he and his wife make their home on the eastern coast of Florida.

Leslie Charteris

Vendetta for the Saint

JACKET NOTES: Relaxing at a sumptuous midday meal in Naples, Simon Templar, alias the Saint, was understandably annoyed when a brawl interrupted his lobster alla Vesuvio. A tweedy English tourist had casually addressed an Italian as Dino Cartelli--provoking the paunchy individual so named to sic his hulking henchman on the bewildered little Briton.

After forcibly returning the two combatants to their respective corners, the Saint returned to the marvels of his Neapolitan cuisine and dismissed the matter from his mind. When the following morning's headlines screamed at him:

TURISTA INGLESE TROVATO ASSASSINATO
James Euston of London...

the Saint pledged himself to a strangely impersonal vendetta which took him to Sicily, a land particularly suited to that ancient, bloody custom. From then on, except for an interlude with a luscious Italian pasta named Gina, it was all-out, heel-stomping war, with the Robin Hood of Modern Crime pitted against the arch-evil, centuries-old Black Hand of the mafiosi.
(© Crime Club)