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The Secret Adversary: A Tommy and Tuppence Mystery
The Secret Adversary: A Tommy and Tuppence Mystery
The Secret Adversary: A Tommy and Tuppence Mystery
Ebook313 pages5 hours

The Secret Adversary: A Tommy and Tuppence Mystery

By Agatha Christie

3/5

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"Two young adventurers for hire. Willing to do anything, go anywhere.
Pay must be good. No reasonable offer refused."
With that bold declaration, Thomas "Tommy" Beresford and Prudence "Tuppence" Cowley launch their career as sleuths. The childhood chums, newly reunited in London during the lean years after the Great War, are immediately swept up in a series of thrilling escapades as they search for a secret treaty in the hands of a survivor of the shipwrecked Lusitania. Witty banter highlights their tale of adventure, courage, and suspense, populated by a colorful cast ranging from an American millionaire and a British Intelligence agent to a ring of Bolshevist conspirators headed by a criminal mastermind.
Agatha Christie published The Secret Adversary in 1922 after the success of her very first book, TheMysterious Affair at Styles, which introduced Hercule Poirot. With stolid Tommy and lively Tuppence, Christie created a pair of fan favorites to whom she returned throughout her career; the fun-loving duo appear in three other novels and a collection of short stories, and their exploits have been adapted for stage and screen. The beloved characters' debut offers a light-hearted romp that also recaptures the spirit of its age, as postwar England hovered on the brink of monumental change.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherDover Publications
Release dateFeb 27, 2017
ISBN9780486820743
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3/5

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  • 4/5
    My first Agatha Christie book, and what a proper introduction it was!Thoroughly enjoyed this book. A definite page turner with characters to easily love.
  • 4/5
    The Secret Adversary is cleverly written, with a lot of suspense, but it drags on if you have early figured out whothe mysterious Mr. Brown actually is. It also offers a fairy tale ending with little to suggest a sequel.
  • 4/5
    This is the second Agatha Christie book I've ever read. And for being first written in 1922 it felt like a book that could have been written today. This is the first book in her Tommy & Tupence series. Tommy & Tupence are two poor english people that want to make money and fast. So they advertise in a local paper stating they're adventurers for hire. Someone overhears there plan and hires them to find a missing girl, who by the way is in care of some very important documents that could really do some damage if they end up in the wrong hands. It's a fun mystery that has some great characters and good twists to the story. It'll have you wondering whodunit yourself.
  • 4/5
    I've never liked the Tommy and Tuppence books as much as the Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries. I tend to prefer cozy mysteries; all the big, vague political conspiracies in mystery fiction fall a bit flat. I generally dislike Christie's political thrillers (Passenger to Frankfurt is a case in point; didn't even finish it)—so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed The Secret Adversary. It's the suspense, the fun characters, and (let's be honest) the exhilaration of giving oneself up to a less-than-highbrow novel that did it. World War I is over and Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley find themselves out of work and with no prospects. The two friends hit upon a scheme that is sure to pay off, advertising themselves as adventurers willing to undertake any task for appropriate pecuniary remuneration. And suddenly they land in an international intrigue involving a stolen treaty that could start a war, a missing woman, an American millionaire, and a bland, elusive criminal mastermind. It is, in short, rather more than they expected. Christie is much wittier than I remembered, and shows off her knack for humor especially in Tuppence's dialogue. And though she uses stereotypes to quickly delineate her characters, somehow they aren't flat. Or at least, the story is engaging enough that any flatness is well disguised. Okay, it's true that Tommy and Tuppence call themselves the "Young Adventurers" (a bit cutesy), and the plot hinges on several highly unlikely coincidences. As a mystery it really doesn't shine, but that needn't interfere with the sheer fun of the story. And there are certainly creative elements that Christie pulls together to draw the reader in. The mysterious "Mr Brown" is a master villain, and though I did eventually suspect the solution, there were enough red herrings along the way to throw me off the scent for quite awhile.Though The Secret Adversary is no heavyweight in mystery fiction, sometimes a fluffy read is just the thing. Quick moving and fun.
  • 5/5
    my copy, only a few years old, is falling apart from use
  • 4/5
    It was a great read. I had narrowed down the identity of the villain to two people but could not determine who it was until the identity was revealed in the end. All the characters were likable as well.