"The Secret Adversary" by Agatha Christie

“The Secret Adversary” is one of Tommy and Tuppence mysteries – and the only one from this series I’ve so far managed to lay my hands on. It’s a perfect thriller, and I absolutely love it. I read it for the first time thirteen years ago, and now just had to refresh it in memory before reviewing it – but I remember the first time, and how completely mystified I was.

Written and published in 1922, this book is one of the first Agatha Christie’s works. It has everything: a mysterious and apparently omnipotent man called Mr. Brown who manages to control people and countries, though almost nobody knows who he is. A girl named Jane Finn of whom nobody has heard in years, and it’s extremely important to find her because of the papers she was once carrying, which can change the whole political situation entirely and even lead to a revolution in England. There are two young and unexperienced, though courageous people – a girl, Tuppence and a guy, Tommy, who are hired by another mysterious person – a certain Mr. Carter, thought it’s not his real name, – to find Jane Finn. There is an American millionaire, a beautiful and sinister woman past her prime and even a couple of Russians (nearly every early book by this author has a couple of Russians in it – Mrs Agatha must have loved us!)

The adventure begins. Anyone less lucky than Tommy and Tuppence would have been dead ten times over by the time it ended, but, as Tuppence said once, “The Young Adventurers take a lot of killing”. So they do. They also outplay the sinister and invincible Mr. Brown – and Tommy, who was believed not to be clever proves otherwise by the end of the story – even the famous Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot could never have done better! But before the happy end and two happy matches ending in accepted proposals we are more than once led to believe we’ll never see this nice couple again. For dessert we are served a nice, delicious red herring… but no, I’ll say no more. Not a word, or I’ll spoil it. The author takes care we only learn the shocking truth at the last moment.

How different this book is from the later works by the same author like, say, “Hallowe’en Party”, where there’s little action but a lot of contemplation and musing! Tommy and Tuppence are too young and active (around the age of 22 each) to waste time contemplating anything – they act!

The book is full of light-hearted humour. Both Tuppence and Tommy are good at making jokes, and their American friend Julius, whose speech is full of idioms of his country, makes me laugh at almost every page. But while all these characters are very thoroughly drawn, the villains are just, well, villains. We learn little more about them.

As the thrilling events come one after another, we keep turning the pages. Agatha Christie always knew how to keep her readers on the hook. If you admire this great writer as much as I do but haven’t read this book yet, I strongly recommend that you do and promise that you will enjoy every moment of it.

"The Secret Adversary" by Agatha Christie