Tommy and Tuppence (Prudence) are old chums, having been friends since childhood. In the years after the First World War, both are at a loose end. Tommy fought and was wounded during the war, while Tuppence served with the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD). Both characters are relentlessly ebullient and cheery; you'd never know they'd served in such a devastating war. In need of money, they vaguely decide to set up a detective agency. Unwittingly, Tuppence lands both of them plonk in the middle of a mystery concerning a certain Jane Finn, who is carrying a secret document to the American embassy in London.
There are many scrapes and near death experiences as Tommy and Tuppence, with the help of American Julius. P Hersheimmer, try to track down the elusive Mr Brown, head of a Bolshevist conspiracy to bring down the British government.
The Secret Adversary depends on so many beguiling twists and turns in its plot, so many character exits and entrances, that this reader found it dizzying to keep up with. Or truth be told, the characters were so one dimensional that I started to lose interest in what they were doing. Interestingly, Agatha Christie was a big fan of P. G. Wodehouse, and there are similarities between both writers, especially in this early Christie incarnation (The Secret Adversary was her second novel.) It's all about British derring-do and saying phooey to danger.
All up this is a good romp, with all the characters displaying the emotional maturity of 13-year-olds. In fact, the book is really a children's adventure. A puzzle to be worked out. An afternoon's entertainment.
I write all of this as an Agatha Christie fan. A fun cartoon, but not one of Christie's better books.
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