The Secret Adversary: Tommy and Tuppence Series, Book 1
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‘Refreshingly original.’
Times Literary Supplement
Review
'Refreshingly original.' Times Literary Supplement
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the best Christie I have ever read! It is different to her usual whodunnits and yet is just as thrilling. Tommy and Tuppence, the two main characters, have been friends since childhood. In a tea room they sit and discuss the difficulties of finding work after the war and decide to start up their own adventure company, a kind of detective agency. This opens up a spiralling story of mystery and suspense. The opening prologue works really well in setting the scene. A sinking ship and a man handing over important documents to be delivered, to the appropriate people in London. This reminded me of films such as the "The Thirty Nine steps" and "The Lady Vanishes". Indeed the book has a very similar style to these films, which I enjoyed as it had a certain charm. The characters are very likeable and again owe something to the earlier mentioned films. Margaret Lockwood would make a good Tuppence and Robert Donat a perfect Tommy. Mr Brown is the illusive villain of the book, which adds another important element to the style of the story. This story was I believe, the second one Mrs Christie published, after a Poirot yarn. It seems a shame Tommy and Tuppence did not become as popular as Poirot or Marple. Tommy and Tuppence have to track down Jane Finn, a name they overheard in a tea room, that later surfaces again in a very different light. Agatha Christie once overheard a person talking in a tea room about someone called Jane Fish and she thought it would be good to use the idea of a strange name being overheard and later being used again in a different context - changing it to Finn as Fish sounded silly! The details of London in this book make it a particular delight to read. From the Lyons Tea shop to the now closed Dover street tube station, make the reader feel part of that time. I would recommend this book to all Christie fans and those more familiar with her sleuths, as these characters will be a welcome surprise.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although I read a great number of Agatha Christie books as a child, I never came across any from her "Tommy & Tuppence" series on my mother's bookshelves. So I thought that it might be fun to try the first of them to see what Christie's "other" series was like. And this first in the T&T series is like is a strange mix of John Buchan and P.G. Wodehouse -- it's an espionage story, but often reads like a parody of one. The title's play on the Joseph Conrad novel hints at a certain tongue in cheekiness, as does the use of every possible spy adventure cliché.
The story opens with a prologue aboard the sinking Lusitania in 1915, as a mysterious man entrusts a secret diplomatic packet to an American teenage girl. We then leap forward to 1919, where we meet Tommy and Tuppence, a pair of lovely young adults who are somewhat adrift and broke following their wartime experiences. Running into each other in London, the childhood friends cook up a scheme to advertise themselves as "Young Adventurers" for hire. Thanks to a wildly improbable coincidence (a snatch of overheard conversation), they find themselves in the midst of a plot to destroy England.
It seems that some secret mastermind has managed to unite all of England's enemies (Bolshevik Russians, defeated Germany, Irish Republicans, and the English working class) in common cause. All they need to do is provoke a general strike that will topple the government and unleash anarchy (exactly how or why this is the case is left murky) -- and the packet entrusted to the girl on the Lusitania is the key. Apparently it contains some kind of draft treaty whose contents are so explosive that public revelation would throw England into just the desired state of unrest (again, just how this old treaty would do that, or who the signatories are are left to the reader's imagination).
In any event, Tommy and Tuppence take on these plotters on behalf of the British government (who presumably would have more qualified people for the job), and there's much tailing, eavesdropping, impersonation, and general thrills and chills as first Tommy, and then Tuppence are captured. Naturally, neither hero nor heroine are simply killed by their captors, as that would make too much sense. Amidst all this toing and froing, they come into contact with a cast of colorful characters including an energetic young American millionaire, a crafty lawyer, a sinister society lady, a spunky kid helper, and Inspector Japp from the Poirot series. Since the reader knows full well that the plot will be foiled, the real mystery is the identity of the unknown mastermind, Mr. Brown. Alas, careful readers will realize less than halfway through, that barring some kind of "locked room" shenanigans, the identity of Mr. Brown must be one of two people.
So it's rather an odd book, perhaps best read as parody, but enjoyable as an old-fashioned ripping yarn with two engaging leads -- who naturally fall in love. Definitely left me curious to read further adventures of Tommy and Tuppence.
The story opens with a prologue aboard the sinking Lusitania in 1915, as a mysterious man entrusts a secret diplomatic packet to an American teenage girl. We then leap forward to 1919, where we meet Tommy and Tuppence, a pair of lovely young adults who are somewhat adrift and broke following their wartime experiences. Running into each other in London, the childhood friends cook up a scheme to advertise themselves as "Young Adventurers" for hire. Thanks to a wildly improbable coincidence (a snatch of overheard conversation), they find themselves in the midst of a plot to destroy England.
It seems that some secret mastermind has managed to unite all of England's enemies (Bolshevik Russians, defeated Germany, Irish Republicans, and the English working class) in common cause. All they need to do is provoke a general strike that will topple the government and unleash anarchy (exactly how or why this is the case is left murky) -- and the packet entrusted to the girl on the Lusitania is the key. Apparently it contains some kind of draft treaty whose contents are so explosive that public revelation would throw England into just the desired state of unrest (again, just how this old treaty would do that, or who the signatories are are left to the reader's imagination).
In any event, Tommy and Tuppence take on these plotters on behalf of the British government (who presumably would have more qualified people for the job), and there's much tailing, eavesdropping, impersonation, and general thrills and chills as first Tommy, and then Tuppence are captured. Naturally, neither hero nor heroine are simply killed by their captors, as that would make too much sense. Amidst all this toing and froing, they come into contact with a cast of colorful characters including an energetic young American millionaire, a crafty lawyer, a sinister society lady, a spunky kid helper, and Inspector Japp from the Poirot series. Since the reader knows full well that the plot will be foiled, the real mystery is the identity of the unknown mastermind, Mr. Brown. Alas, careful readers will realize less than halfway through, that barring some kind of "locked room" shenanigans, the identity of Mr. Brown must be one of two people.
So it's rather an odd book, perhaps best read as parody, but enjoyable as an old-fashioned ripping yarn with two engaging leads -- who naturally fall in love. Definitely left me curious to read further adventures of Tommy and Tuppence.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having startd their "Young Adventurers" agency, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford soon find themselves thrust into the world of international espionage. With only the name of a girl as possible a clue, the young adventurers meet with more danger than they bargained for, especially when it becomes clear that someone in their confidence may be working against them.... This is certainly one of the best Christie books, with plenty of twists and turns along the way. A very ingenious plot!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not quite the Dynamic Duo - Poirot and Miss Marple
Not quite the Dynamic Duo
Don't get too excited about `The Secret Adversary' (1922) which was Agatha Christie's second published novels. Read more
Don't get too excited about `The Secret Adversary' (1922) which was Agatha Christie's second published novels. Read more
Published 29 days ago by Bob
Entertaining, witty and fun
In this first outing for Tommy and Tuppence, both bored and broke after the excitement of the first world war, they form an association for adventure and are soon on a secret... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Roman Clodia
A Perfect Fairy Thriller
The "The Secret Adversary" by Agatha Christie has some shortcomings:
(1) The story is very naive, in real live Tommy would have been dead after the first half and Tuppence at... Read more
(1) The story is very naive, in real live Tommy would have been dead after the first half and Tuppence at... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Havauka
Partners in Crime
What a treat to read the first book, how it all started. Every time I see Partners in Crime on television I have to watch. Read more
Published 11 months ago by SDee
Engrossing introduction to Tommy and Tuppence
I came to Agatha Christie's second novel, "The Secret Adversary," as a huge fan of her Poirot and Miss Marple series but without any knowledge at all of Tommy and Tuppence. Read more
Published 16 months ago by M.B.
The Debut of Tommy & Tuppence
It was a real treat to come across this Kindle edition of the first Tommy & Tuppence adventure. They're so young in this story -- "Their united ages certainly would not have... Read more
Published 21 months ago by takingadayoff
Another great Agatha Christie
I like Agatha Christie's books a lot. Unlike many of the other books written at the time, hers seem to be eternal in their appeal, at least where I'm concerned. Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2006 by bookaholic
NO SECRET HERE - A FINE VOICE PERFORMANCE
Popular performer Samantha Bond uses her wonderful British voice to best advantage in reading this -not-too-heavy tale by the doyenne of mysteries, Agatha Christie. Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2004 by Gail Cooke
An early Christie caper.
Moving into a writing career that was to make her the world's most published author, Agatha Christie sent this book to her publisher in the early 1920s. Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2004 by John Austin
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