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CAPTURE THE SAINT by Burl Barer was written especially for The Saint Club, published in 1997, and had a print run of six hundred numbered, signed copies. Later, if I remember(I can’t find it now), another two hundred with a different colored cover were done for Volvo car dealerships, the type The Saint drove in the Roger Moore series. That’s eight hundred copies. The few that are up for sale on used sites run from $73 to almost $300. But it recently became available as a Kindle book(and probably other ebook reader formats I would imagine).

Earlier this week, I posted on THE SAINT IN NEW YORK, covered by David Cranmer on Forgotten Books, because one of the characters from it appears in this one. That makes CAPTURE a sequel of sorts I suppose. It was the first new Saint book, excluding Barer’s novelization of the Kilmer film(not the same Simon Templar in my mind), since 1983. And the last since(though Barer dropped me a comment saying he was writing a new one).

Simon Templar is in Seattle doing promotional work for the film, The Pirate, based on a novel he’d written when he was much younger. “Creaky,” he thought now from an older perspective. He’s approached by two people at a celebration: an attractive middle-aged woman and a weasel-like little man, the type you unconsciously dislike from the beginning.

Viola Berkman is the woman, married to a rabbi, and seems to know him from some past episode. He doesn’t remember until she laughs and reminds him that she was only six at the time when he’d rescued her from a kidnapping by a crime mob( HERE). She wants his assistance in helping her stop a couple of pedophiles, a police officer and an attorney in the DA’s office. She works with homeless children and has one young woman caught up that needs help. And some really horrible photos she came across.

The man is Salvidore Alisdare with a ridiculous story about needing his aid recovering the “Costello Treasure” from a sunken ship. They want his name for publicity. Most interestingly, he has a cashier’s check for $10,000 in Simon’s name as an advance on his cut of the profits. Alisdare’ s problem is Simon knows exactly what the treasure is and smells a rat. But their is that cashier’s check.

Simon accepts both jobs and sets out help Viola and foil Alisdare in typical “Saintly” fashion. Lots of action, a big goon jumping him several times, shooting, the whole works.

I thought this one fit in fine in the mythos and am glad Mr. Barer brought it to Kindle, as with Amazon’s free application, it was more than reasonable. It was in my hands in just a few seconds. One I’d wanted for years, those high prices made it impossible to justify purchasing one. I did think I had a deal one time when I came across one listed, with shipping and handling, at thirty dollars. That I did buy, only to be disappointed when it arrived. Shrink-wrapped and mislabeled, it was actually a book on Hitler. I did get my money refunded with apologies.

What’s the old saying?

If it’s to good to be true…