The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie - Tommy and Tuppence #1
Agatha Christie’s second novel The Secret Adversary is a Romp, a holler and a hoot full of adventure
A Book Review
Two young adventurers for hire. Willing to do anything, go anywhere. Pay must be good. No reasonable offer refused.
Agatha Christie, The Secret Adversary (1922)
Anything from Agatha Christie invites one to imagine some the most well-known, read and loved literary escapades marked with intrigue, mystery and of course - murder.
That said, The Secret Adversary, Agatha Christie’s second published work from 1922 includes no dead bodies to be accounted for, but more than enough the former, schemes and conspiracies galore!
In The Secret Adversary, a pair of young not-quite-down-and-out bright things, Thomas “Tommy” Beresford and Prudence “Tuppence” Cowley come together in the time-honoured fashion of taking on a bit more than they initially bargained for the singular chance of lining their pockets with some much-needed ends.
“Money, money, money! I think about money morning, noon and night! I dare say it's mercenary of me, but there it is”
Agatha Christie, The Secret Adversary (1922)
It’s a thrilling romp filled to the rim with secrets, spies and clandestine deeds done for dark ends by disagreeable miscreants.
It is also a tale of two young people who dare to try and live their bliss as amateur investigators and aspiring adventurers.
And it’s written by Agatha Christie, which in itself should be recommendation enough for anyone fond of crime fiction, murder mysteries and suspense.
I reckon it is a rum deal to compare Tommy and Tuppence to the more well-known characters penned by Christie.
At the same time, however, Agatha Christie being Agatha Christie, an author so widely-recognised that she often has the unfair task of being offered as the penultimate example of a certain creed of crime fiction, it needs to be said that Tommy and Tuppence are not Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple - even though a keen-eyed reader might make a note that they all inhabit the same universe. Neither is “The Secret Adversary“ “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” or “The Murder at the Vicarage”.
Considering that, I would be doing this 1922 book a disservice by claiming that it’s without virtues of its own.
Among the many strengths of The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie is the relationship between the main characters.
To follow Tommy and Tuppence on their clever little dip into the world of international espionage is a lovely experience, especially if you happen to be in the mood for something less “serious” and more fun than some of its relations in this particular sub-genre. That is not to say that they do not encounter a close shave or two, but they never lose their instinctual wittiness.
Agatha Christie may not have made her mark in the history of literature employing her distinctive phraseology, but one thing she proved very adept already in first few novels - plotting (especially in her mysteries) and characterisation.
The Tommy and Tuppence continuum that The Secret Adversary kicks off is by no means the most voluminous series from Christie.
All in all, it has only five entries, but spans throughout her five-decade-long writing career, finishing at the Postern of Fate from 1973.
The Secret Adversary is a very competent adventure and a delightfully paced example of the series as a whole.
It’s well worth a try if an intriguing adventure, spiced up with a distinctive pair of detectives sounds interesting.
For my money The Secret Adversary scores easily a four star rating and a glowing recommendation. The critical consensus at Goodreads agrees; based on nearly fifty thousand ratings and three and a-half thousand reviews, The Secret Adversary averages just an inch under 3.9 stars.
That's the curious part about speaking the truth. No one does believe it.
Agatha Christie, The Secret Adversary (1922)
