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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An early Christie caper., 3 Mar 2004
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. Already her strengths are evident: her gift for story telling, her ability to engage a likely readership aged from 8 to 80, her ability to pull a fast one on her readers, and her ability to reproduce actual ordinary conversation. In the 1920s it was normal to hear young adults calling each other "Old Bean" and "Old Thing", and they do so here. A weakness still is her inability to devise a means of dispensing with the requirement for long explanations, at the end of a mystery novel "The Secret Adversary" is not a pure mystery novel, however. It is part romance, part adventure, part ripping yarn, part thriller, and part whodunit. Agatha Christie takes up some of the props found in each of these types of fiction. There are the lively young adults, Tommy and Tuppence, eager to make ends meet by undertaking a little detective work. There is the hunt for a secret document that will determine the fate of the great nations of the world. There are the apparent adversaries ("The German" is one of them), and the incredible eavesdropping and kidnapping situations. Avid Christie readers will want to sample this early work, but general readers should choose from her productions of the 1930s.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The best Christie I have ever read!, 1 April 2001
By A Customer
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.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
NO SECRET HERE - A FINE VOICE PERFORMANCE, 11 Aug 2004
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. Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley suffer from a common malady - they need money. So, being an imaginative pair they decide to hire themselves out as adventurers, if you will, able and ready to tackle anything for a sum. Better be careful what you ask for - they're retained by the evil Mr. Whittington who is a threat not only to Great Britain but also to our impecunious pair. As they say, two heads are better than one but Tommy and Tuppence must use all the brainpower each possesses to get out of this scrape. The dialogue features frequent feasts of repartee - a thoroughly entertaining listen. - Gail Cooke
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