My Thoughts On Agatha Christie’s The Secret Adversary

Yesterday evening, I completed my reading of Agatha Christie’s The Secret Adversary.  The Secret Adversary is the second book published by Agatha Christie in 1922, and is the first book of the Tommy and Tuppence books she wrote.  I couldn’t find a copy in our public library, but, fortunately, I managed to find a free copy of it in the Kindle store, and I downloaded that to my Kindle and read it from there.  Here’s a quick synopsis from Goodreads:

Childhood friends Tommy Beresford and Prudence Cowley (known as Tuppence) meet in London at the end of the First World War. Short of money and with no prospects, they decide to become adventurers and are soon working for the British Government. Their assignment is to find the missing Jane Finn who is suspected of having a secret treaty signed before the war, now missing. The treaty could cause a lot of trouble for the present government, and the mysterious ‘Mr Brown’ is somewhere in the background, plotting to bring down the government. Kidnapping, treason and Bolsheviks await the adventurers before they solve the case.

As I was reading The Secret Adversary, I was finding it quite difficult to get really attached to either Tommy or Tuppence.  Both of them combined kind of reminded me of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum.  In particular, Tuppence reminded me of her.  Some common sense, and knowing just enough information that she could get herself in quite a bit of trouble.  However, that didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the story.  I thought there was a lot of good action with the story, even though  I was able to figure out who the “secret adversary” was well before the end of the book.  That was a stark contrast to when I read The Mysterious Affair at Styles which I wasn’t able to figure out whodunit until almost the very end!

I definitely enjoyed reading the crazy ideas both Tommy and Tuppence came up with to try to not only make money, but at the very beginning when they were trying to figure out where to start once they were first put on the case.  I was also a bit flabbergasted with how much Tuppence seems to really like money.  She struck me as bit of a gold digger with the amount of time she spent thinking and talking about how she really loved money.  Tommy really balances Tuppence out, and they work well as a team, even though Tommy isn’t exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he is quite intuitive and manages to figure some things out quickly some of the time.

Overall, a good yarn from the queen of mystery.  I certainly hope that when I get to the second Tommy and Tuppence book, Partners in Crime, that I see some maturation from both of them.  If you’ve read The Secret Adversary, I’d love to hear what you thought!