Leslie Charteris Books in Order

When businessmen tied to a rising cigarette brand begin dying, Inspector Bill Kennedy hunts the anonymous avenger called X Esquire. The case plays like a sharp early thriller, balancing police work with uneasy questions about who the real villain is.

Simon Templar investigates murder, criminal empire, and a dangerous woman in the novel that introduces the Saint. The character is rougher here than later, but his nerve, wit, and moral swagger are already in place.

A missing fortune in drug money, a murder, and a mysterious rider near Sancreed Manor bring Inspector Bill Kennedy to the case. This early Charteris mystery mixes country-house menace with fast, pulpy suspense.

Christopher Storm Arden charges into a sprawling conspiracy involving threats, secret symbols, and organized crime. Bill Kennedy and Inspector Teal help anchor this fast pre-Saint thriller, where Charteris is already testing ideas he would later refine.

Ramon Manrique, a celebrated South American outlaw, takes his jewel thefts to New York and London. Then a clever woman enters the picture, and the line between partner, captive, and trap starts to blur.

This early collection shows Simon Templar settling into his role as a self-appointed enemy of the ungodly. The linked stories introduce the mix of wit, audacity, and criminal-hunting energy that defines the Saint.

Simon Templar faces kidnappers, schemers, and men willing to gamble with Europe for power and profit. It is an energetic early novel that shows the Saint as a hard, idealistic adventurer rather than a polished later celebrity.

A stolen weapon and a high-stakes conspiracy push Simon Templar into one of his darkest early cases. The story widens the Saint's world, mixing adventure, science-tinged menace, and real personal stakes.

Simon Templar works under false names, unexpected roles, and risky cover stories as he moves through this early collection. The mood is pulpy and playful, with traps, escape acts, and crooks who underestimate him.

One of the early Saint collections, this book introduces a wider circle of Simon Templar's allies and gives him a string of quick, sly adventures. The stories mix high spirits, disguise, and a strong taste for poetic justice.

Simon Templar crosses paths with Jill Trelawney, a clever female crime boss who may be ally, rival, or both. Their partnership gives this Saint adventure extra spark, since each is always weighing the other.

Simon Templar crosses paths with Jill Trelawney, a clever female crime boss who may be ally, rival, or both. Their partnership gives this Saint adventure extra spark, since each is always weighing the other.

This early collection pits Simon Templar against crooks and against the police trying to catch him at the same time. It shows the Saint at his most impish and dangerous, still close to his outlaw roots.

A simple job turns into murder, pursuit, and a tightening trap as Simon Templar tries to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. It is a fast early novel with the Saint half hunted, half in control.

Fifteen short adventures send Simon Templar after swindlers, crooked officials, fake investors, and other easy targets. The stories are brief, fast, and full of the jaunty Robin Hood spirit that defines the early Saint.

Three linked novellas deepen the long-running game between Simon Templar and Inspector Teal. The cases are twisty, connected, and especially good at showing how much the Saint enjoys needling the law.

These stories catch Simon Templar in confident early form, moving from scams and robberies to cases with real danger behind them. It is a punchy collection that helped define the Saint as both prankster and crusader.

These linked stories pit Simon Templar against crime in and around London, with Inspector Teal never far behind. The fun comes from watching the Saint solve problems while making the police work twice as hard.

A short-story collection in which Simon Templar keeps dropping into smaller crimes that reveal much larger dishonesty underneath. Crooks, swindlers, and respectable frauds all learn that the Saint is hard to shake once interested.

The Saint crosses the Atlantic to stop a ruthless gang that has made New York a killing ground. Fast, hard-edged, and more openly violent than later books, it shows Simon Templar at his most relentless.

Simon Templar rescues a young detective from the sea and gets pulled into a treasure-salvage mystery off the French coast. Modern pirates, missing gold, and divided loyalties make this one of the Saint's best seafaring adventures.

An omnibus-style Saint collection that showcases Simon Templar in brisk, varied adventures. It is less about one big arc than about the ongoing pleasure of watching the Saint bait crooks and outthink everyone else.

Charteris translated this vivid autobiography of the great matador Juan Belmonte. It follows Belmonte from poverty to fame and gives a direct, first-hand look at bullfighting, risk, and celebrity in Spain.

What starts as a hunt around stolen diamonds turns into a crowded game of treachery among professional thieves. Simon Templar has to stay half a step ahead of crooks who are all planning to betray each other.

Three novellas send Simon into profiteering, war-shadowed intrigue, and showy criminal schemes. The mood is a little harder and more political than in some Saint collections, but the pace never drops.

As Europe edges toward war, Simon Templar gets mixed up with fascists, murder, and a plot that could do real damage. It is one of the Saint books where politics and adventure are tightly bound together.

Three novellas put Simon Templar on the trail of counterfeiters, swindlers, and moral crusaders who are not as pure as they look. It is classic Saint material, witty, restless, and happy to make fools of authority.

This lively collection turns the Saint loose on corrupt mayors, crooked art dealers, acting-school frauds, and even one strange scientific menace. The range is broad, but the pleasure is always Simon's mix of nerve, style, and mischief.

In wartime Miami, Simon Templar finds Nazi agents, murder, and a city full of money and menace. This novel begins the Saint's American war years and gives him an enemy bigger than the usual crook.

Three novellas send Simon Templar across Arizona, Palm Springs, and Hollywood, chasing spies, rich eccentrics, and murder. The Western and California settings give these Saint adventures a fresh, widescreen feel.

In Washington, a young woman asks Simon Templar to protect her inventor father and soon lands him in wartime intrigue. What looks like gangland pressure turns into a fight over patriotism, power, and a valuable scientific breakthrough.

Simon Templar heads to Galveston on the trail of a factory saboteur, only to find murder, local suspicion, and bigger forces behind the damage. It is a compact wartime Saint adventure with plenty of heat.

Two wartime novellas send Simon Templar after stolen strategic materials and a saboteur loose in Texas. These stories put the Saint into direct conflict with enemy agents and black-market operators.

Back in New York, Simon Templar investigates a rising crime syndicate built on postwar opium smuggling. The case grows from one racket into a larger network of murder, corruption, and dangerous alliances.

Two novellas put Simon Templar back into longer, more dangerous cases, including one that brings Patricia Holm back into the action. It is a good bridge between the wartime books and the later short-story collections.

This postwar collection pairs Simon Templar with a different woman in each story, so the cases shift in tone while keeping the same easy confidence. It is a looser, more playful Saint book with plenty of movement.

This collection restarts the Saint after a gap and sends him across Europe for murders, kidnappings, jewel thefts, and swindles. The stories lean hard into travel, giving Simon Templar a new city and a new problem each time.

This paperback gathering offers more Saint adventures in a compact, fast-reading format. Expect Simon Templar doing what he does best, stepping into dirty situations and leaving crooks, blackmailers, and cheats much worse off.

Simon Templar roams the Caribbean in six stories full of journalists, dictators, treasure, and crooked businessmen. It is one of the Saint's most openly globe-trotting collections, with a breezy holiday surface and real danger underneath.

These six stories send Simon Templar from Bermuda to Malaya and beyond, solving trouble wherever he lands. The appeal is the mix of travelogue colour, brisk plotting, and the Saint's amused confidence.

Six stories show Simon Templar dealing with con artists, terrorists, and people who think they can outplay him. It is a confident mid-period collection, quick to read and full of traps turning back on their makers.

This collection takes Simon Templar into warmer, Latin-flavoured settings for four sharp adventures involving pearls, revolutions, romance, and old-fashioned greed. The mood is relaxed on the surface, but the schemes are not.

In six short adventures, Simon Templar keeps stepping into other people's bad situations and making them much worse for the crooks involved. It is a nimble collection of rescues, reversals, and neatly handled sting operations.

This short-story collection throws Simon Templar at swindlers, reformers, and stranger problems than usual. The cases are brisk and witty, and one of them edges into the fantastic without losing the Saint's cool tone.

Seven sunlit adventures send Simon Templar through resorts, seaside towns, and holiday settings where crime is never far away. It is the last Saint collection written solely by Charteris, light, sharp, and comfortably worldly.

A chance encounter in Naples pulls Simon Templar into a maze of false identities, private islands, and Mafia power. The Saint has to work fast when every answer brings another attack.

Two novella-length adventures adapt the Saint's television era into print. Simon Templar faces staged games and power plays, with the same fast pace, banter, and clean cliffhanger energy that made the screen version work.

Simon agrees to protect a reclusive thriller writer and finds himself kidnapped by criminals who think fiction can become a blueprint. It is a playful Saint adventure about pulp, performance, and a very real heist.

This two-story collection brings Simon Templar back for cases involving a missing young woman and people far too interested in clever devices. It has the brisk, stylish feel of the TV-linked Saint books.

Two novellas send Simon Templar into international trouble involving collectors, schemers, and dangerous patriots. These TV-era Saint stories are light on their feet and built for quick, globe-trotting entertainment.

Simon Templar goes on the chase in a later novel built from a comic-strip storyline. Expect disguises, pursuit across shifting leads, and a Saint mystery driven by movement, bluff, and pressure rather than quiet deduction.

After spotting a headline about a dead Pakistani immigrant, Simon Templar starts probing a brutal people-smuggling racket in London. The case pushes the Saint into a darker, more topical story about exploitation and murder.

A very different Charteris book, this introduces Paleneo, his pictorial universal sign language. It reads as a guide to communicating through symbols rather than words, and shows the author's playful, systems-loving side.

This two-novella collection pits Simon Templar against an art theft mystery and a hunt for a hidden crime boss. The stories aim for a classic Saint feel, with damsels in distress, elegant swindles, and quick-footed detection.

On the eve of war, Simon Templar helps a young countess protect the fabled Hapsburg Necklace from Nazi hands and rival thieves. It is part treasure hunt, part espionage caper, with Vienna under growing pressure.

Two linked late-era adventures send Simon after con artists, kidnappers, and schemes bigger than they first appear. This collection keeps the Saint moving fast, with cases driven by bluffing, pursuit, and sudden twists.

Two novellas find Simon Templar untangling trouble that starts with odd requests and turns quickly dangerous. It is a brisk late Saint collection built around sharp reversals, criminals with plans, and the hero's refusal to stay out of it.

In prewar Vienna, Simon Templar teams with a countess to keep a legendary necklace out of Nazi hands. Jewel hunting, divided loyalties, and looming war give this Saint novel an unusually tense historical backdrop.

This two-story collection sends Simon Templar into a church theft and a university murder plot. It is a compact late-era Saint book with puzzles, imposture, and the hero's cool, needling wit.

This anthology gathers the Saint stories where crime edges into the strange, from uncanny science to near-supernatural menace. Simon stays recognizably himself, even when the cases step outside ordinary mystery ground.

Simon Templar tackles a high-stakes salvage case that leads from wreckage and missing treasure to murder. One of the last Saint novels, it gives him a tough modern mystery with danger on land and sea.

This radio-era collection brings Simon Templar to audio, where voice, pace, and cliffhanger plotting suit him perfectly. It is a chance to hear how well the Saint's polish and mischief translated off the page.

In Seattle for a film premiere, Simon Templar is pulled into murder and a modern criminal scheme. This late Saint adventure mixes show-business glamour, old enemies, and the hero's usual taste for dangerous improvisation.

A curated sampler of Simon Templar stories, this volume offers a strong introduction to the Saint's wit, nerve, and taste for poetic justice. It is a good place to sample the character across different moods and eras.

A second best-of collection that broadens the picture of Simon Templar with more standout cases. Expect brisk plotting, elegant rogues, and the mix of charm and danger that kept the Saint popular for decades.

This volume gathers long-lost radio adventures written for Sherlock Holmes by Leslie Charteris and Denis Green. It is a treat for Holmes listeners and Saint fans alike, showing Charteris at work in another classic detective world.

While riding a train at Christmas, a young woman sees what looks like a murder through a passing window. When the police brush her off, she turns sleuth and follows the case into a lively mix of mystery, comedy, and danger.