Patricia Holm - Early Appearances

Early Appearances

Holm is in her early 20s when she first encounters Templar in the inaugural Saint adventure Meet - The Tiger! (published in 1928). She and Templar encounter each other on the street in a quiet seaside English village, and she is initially annoyed by his flippant, almost comical behavior. Later, following more encounters, she begins to fall in love with Templar and literally talks herself into assisting the Saint on a scheme to uncover the identity of a crime boss named The Tiger and make off with a hoard of illegally obtained gold. Templar, after some initial hesitancy, recognizes Holm as a kindred spirit, with "Saintly" qualities not unlike his own.

Holm actually becomes the main protagonist for the middle third of the novel, as at one point the Saint is incapacitated and Holm is led to the assumption that he is dead. She decides to complete his mission and take revenge upon the Tiger, but is reunited with Templar before things get out of hand.

Charteris' physical description of Holm (which remained consistent) is of a tall and willowy woman with long, golden-blonde hair.

Following Meet - The Tiger!, Holm fades into the background for the next Saint book, 1930s Enter the Saint (a novella collection), and is relegated to cameo status, the character being sent on a Mediterranean cruise, ostensibly to keep her out of trouble. In the third Saint book, the novel The Last Hero, Holm alternates between being an active heroine (she and Templar witness a test of the electroncloud device, a machine that has the potential to spark a second world war) to "damsel in distress" as she is kidnapped by the villain, millionaire Rayt Marius, an action that sends the Saint into a murderous rage. In the same book, the reader - but not Holm herself - learns that Templar's friend Norman Kent is deeply and hopelessly in love with her, a futile love which has a significant part in bringing Kent to decide upon the self-sacrificing act which he takes at the book's conclusion.

After The Last Hero, Holm all but vanishes from the series for a time. She is only briefly mentioned in Knight Templar, a direct sequel to The Last Hero (Charteris writes that she's on another Mediterranean cruise), and appears only briefly in the next two novella collections Featuring the Saint and Alias the Saint (initially released in the United States as the omnibus Wanted for Murder). She is completely absent from the following novel, She Was a Lady, however her presence is felt as Templar, despite finding himself in partnership with a beautiful crime boss for a number of weeks, states that his heart belongs to another and that his relationship with Jill Trelawney is nothing beyond platonic.