The Last Hero aka The Saint Closes the Case.

In 1929 Leslie Charteris began writing stories for a new magazine called The Thriller. Two of these serialised stories (The Creeping Death and Sudden Death) were later combined to form The Last Hero. Although his first books had been published by Ward, Lock & Co he abandoned them for Hodder & Stoughton (hereafter referred to as H&S) in the UK with the first publication of this story in May 1930. It was undated and issued in blue cloth. The Crime Club (US) published it in 1931. The 1941 Sun Dial Press issue subtitled it The Saint Closes the Case, and this title was adopted by H&S in 1950, although Ace/Charter called it The Saint The Last Hero in 1952, while Avon Books called it The Saint and the Last Hero in 1953.
Essentially, a mad scientist has developed an electron cloud which fries everything it touches. The Saint decides it’s too horrendous to ever be used & if he can’t persuade the inventor to stop work, then he will have to die. Unfortunately his arch-enemy Rayt Marius wants it for himself. Simon is working with a gang, who were based on the Five Kings he had created for The Thriller, and one of them was the eponymous Last Hero. One other character developed in The Thriller made his Saintly debut here - Chief Inspector Claude Eustace Teal.

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