For the documentary film by Frank Capra

Frank Capra

Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...

, see Prelude to War

Prelude to War

Prelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra’s Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Office of War Information and George C. Marshall. It was made to convince American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis Powers during World War II...

.

Prelude for War is a mystery novel by Leslie Charteris

Leslie Charteris

Leslie Charteris , born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, was a half-Chinese, half English author of primarily mystery fiction, as well as a screenwriter. He was best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint."-Early life:Charteris was born to a Chinese father...

 featuring his Robin Hood

Robin Hood

Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....

-inspired crime fighter, Simon Templar

Simon Templar

Simon Templar is a British fictional character known as The Saint featured in a long-running series of books by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date, other authors collaborated with Charteris on books until 1983; two additional works produced without Charteris’s...

, alias "The Saint". The book was first published in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in 1938 by Hodder and Stoughton, and in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 by The Crime Club

The Crime Club

The Crime Club was an imprint of the Doubleday publishing company, which later spawned a 1946-47 anthology radio series.Many classic and popular works of detective and mystery fiction had their first U.S. editions published via the Crime Club, including all 50 books of The Saint by Leslie Charteris...

 the same year. Previously, the novel had been serialized in the American magazine Cosmopolitan. Publication of the book marked the 10th anniversary of the Simon Templar character.

Later editions of the book were retitled The Saint and the Sinners and The Saint Plays with Fire. This was the last time a Simon Templar novel or short story collection would be published under different titles (although a later novella, The Saint and the Sizzling Saboteur from The Saint on Guard

The Saint on Guard

The Saint on Guard is a collection of two mystery novellas by Leslie Charteris, first published in the United States in 1944 by The Crime Club, and in the United Kingdom in 1945 by Hodder and Stoughton. This book continues the adventures of Charteris' creation, Simon Templar, alias The Saint, and...

would later be published individually).

Story summary

A peaceful moonlight drive in the English countryside is interrupted when Simon Templar and Patricia Holm

Patricia Holm

Patricia Holm is the name of a fictional character who appeared in the novels of Leslie Charteris from the 1920s to the 1940s. She was the on-again, off-again girlfriend and partner of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint" and shared a number of his adventures....

 listen to a disturbing radio broadcast from France by a would-be dictator who plans to make France the latest in a growing number of European dictatorship

Dictatorship

A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...

s under a ruling party called the Sons of France. This broadcast disturbs Patricia, and Templar makes a dire (and, as events were to unfold in real life

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 in the next few years, accurate) prediction that the future of Europe will be one of invasions and concentration camps.

The two adventurers are interrupted in their worries when they spot a house on fire in the distance. Rushing to help, Templar enters the burning building but is unable to rescue a man trapped inside. Later, he and Patricia learn that one of the occupants of the house is a known war profiteer who is expected to make millions off both sides should a new European war erupt.

Templar, examining the facts of the fire and the man's death, comes to the conclusion that he was murdered. When he is subsequently called to testify at a coroner's inquest into the death, Templar is disturbed to see an obvious whitewash underway, attempting to label the death accidental. Templar launches his own investigation into the death, which gets off to a bad start when one of his targets is murdered and Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

 Chief Inspector Claud Eustace Teal

Claud Eustace Teal

Claud Eustace Teal is a fictional character who made many appearances in a series of novels, novellas and short stories by Leslie Charteris entitled The Saint, starting in 1929...

 catches Templar leaning over the dead body.

Now firmly intrigued, Templar continues his investigations, which leads him on the trail of an assassination plot designed to spark a Second World War, a clue to which is provided from beyond the grave.

Prelude for War, in retrospect, can be seen as a prelude for Templar's later work on behalf of the war effort, as chronicled in The Saint in Miami

The Saint in Miami

The Saint in Miami is the title of a mystery novel by Leslie Charteris featuring his creation, Simon Templar, alias The Saint. As with an earlier release, Follow the Saint, the order of publication for this book was changed...

and succeeding books written and set during World War II.

Television adaptation

Prelude for War was adapted as an episode of The Saint

The Saint (TV series)

The Saint was an ITC mystery spy thriller television series that aired in the UK on ITV between 1962 and 1969. It centred on the Leslie Charteris literary character, Simon Templar, a Robin Hood-like adventurer with a penchant for disguise. The character may be nicknamed The Saint because the...

entitled "The Saint Plays with Fire". The episode aired on November 28, 1963 during the second season. It is one of only a few full Saint novels to be adapted for the series.