The Man in the Brown Suit (Colonel Race, #1) in Reading the Detectives

Sep 08, 2013 Susan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is one of Agatha Christie's best stand alone novels - part mystery, part thriller and part espionage story - which takes us from a London tube station to revolution in Africa. It begins with Anne Beddingfeld, the daughter of a professor who longs for adventure. She spends her day trying to placate creditors and longing to 'step out' with a young man. When her father dies, she takes an opportunity to go to London, where, quite by chance, she witnesses the death of a young man at a tube stati ...more

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Aug 18, 2016 Christine PNW rated it liked it

Shelves: vintage-women

The Man in the Brown Suit is a very early Christie, published in 1924 on the heels of the second Poirot mystery, Murder on the Links, and right before the first Superintendent Battle mystery, The Secret of Chimneys. In this one, she introduces the enigmatic Colonel Race, who subsequently appears in Cards on the Table, Death on the Nile and Sparkling Cyanide.

This is also the first of her books narrated by one of her charming young women, in this case Anne Beddingfield, impoverished but plucky dau The Man in the Brown Suit is a very early Christie, published in 1924 on the heels of the second Poirot mystery, Murder on the Links, and right before the first Superintendent Battle mystery, The Secret of Chimneys. In this one, she introduces the enigmatic Colonel Race, who subsequently appears in Cards on the Table, Death on the Nile and Sparkling Cyanide.

This is also the first of her books narrated by one of her charming young women, in this case Anne Beddingfield, impoverished but plucky daughter of a well-known archaeologist. Upon the death of her father, Anne takes her 87 pounds to London, where she is on the search for adventure and darkly attractive, taciturn men to fascinate her.

The Man in the Brown Suit is equal parts romance and mystery, with a side of international criminal intrigue, all taking place under the hot African sky. I get the sense, reading it, that Christie put a lot of herself in Anne Beddingfield, and the incident where Anne goes surfing only strengthens that sense. For those of you who don't know, Agatha was an avid surfer as a young woman, and was the first British woman to surf standing up, which occurred in Capetown, South Africa during the writing of this book.

The plot is profoundly silly and entirely unbelievable. Looking at Christie's bibliography, her first ten books are basically equally split between straight mystery and international espionage:

Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) (mystery)
The Secret Adversary (1922) (international espionage)
Murder on the Links (1923) (mystery)
The Man in the Brown Suit (1924) (international espionage)
The Secret of Chimneys (1925) (international espionage)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) (mystery)
The Big Four (1927) (international espionage)
The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) (mystery)
The Seven Dials Mystery (1929) (international espionage)
The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) (mystery)

After The Seven Dials Mystery her publishers must have convinced her that she was a much stronger mystery writer than she was a spy novelist, because she largely abandons that form for 22 years, until 1951's They Came To Baghdad.

It is true that Christie's "thrillers" are not as strong as her mysteries. Having said that, with the exception of The Big Four, which I found execrable, and Passenger to Frankfurt, which is likely one of the worst books ever published, I generally enjoy them. They are reliant on coincidence, mostly silly, and have wholly unconvincing villains, but they are fun so long as I refuse to take them seriously.

I am disappointed that with such a worthy start, Colonel Race fizzled as a character, showing up in only three additional books. I would still like to know more about him. ...more

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Jan 13, 2021 Jazzy Lemon rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, english-authors

Following a suspicious incident at the tube station, our narrator sails away on an ocean liner where she encounters a host of interesting characters including one Colonel Race!

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Apr 13, 2019 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, bought-2015, mount-tbr-2019, agatha-christie, vintage-mystery, mystery

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I am currently on a mission to reread Agatha Christie's work in order of publication. Having just started this year, I'm up to The Man in the Brown Suit . I first reviewed this one back during my first full year of blogging (pre- most of my challenges); nearly at the same time of year, in fact--March. If you'd like to see my thoughts at the time or a little more complete synopsis of the plot, then please click on the title. I'm not going to rehash the plot here. Instead, I'm going to look a l I am currently on a mission to reread Agatha Christie's work in order of publication. Having just started this year, I'm up to The Man in the Brown Suit . I first reviewed this one back during my first full year of blogging (pre- most of my challenges); nearly at the same time of year, in fact--March. If you'd like to see my thoughts at the time or a little more complete synopsis of the plot, then please click on the title. I'm not going to rehash the plot here. Instead, I'm going to look a little deeper at a point (that is a major spoiler--and could possibly spoil another Christie title) that struck me during this reading that just passed me by in previous readings. So, if by chance you've not read this particular Christie novel and haven't read all her big titles, by which I mean the highly recognized titles that break/bend the Golden Age rules of detection a bit, then you might want to give this review a miss.

First off, before we get to the spoiling bits, I'd just like to say that I enjoyed the novel much more this time round. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy it last time--I did--I just wasn't as enthusiastic about it as say, Yvette over at the In So Many Words blog (who said so in the comments of that previous review). Perhaps I was in a more adventuresome mood this year. But I thoroughly enjoyed Anne's sense of adventure and longing for excitement after being cooped up with her father for so many years.

But on to the spoils of reading....What struck me so forcibly during this reading was Christie's use of the unreliable "narrator" in the extracts from Sir Eustace Pedler's diary. It is an early version of her "breaking" the very first of Father Ronald Knox's Ten Commandments of GAD rules:

The criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to know. [emphasis mine]

Of course she bent this same rule with even more abandon in one of her most highly recognizable titles--resulting in some criticism from mystery fans (and fellow authors) over her rule-breaking. Dorothy L. Sayers came to her defense, saying that "It is the reader's job to suspect everybody." And much has been made (again, in her defense) that there are clear breaks in the narrative and enough ambiguous language to indicate that we haven't been shown all of the criminal's thoughts.

This happens again with Sir Eustace and his diary. Readers zip along in the narrative, reading the diary excerpts in between Anne's narrative and, generally, accepting the two parallel stories at face value. But Christie (through Sir Eustace) goes out of her way to tell us that he really shouldn't be trusted. He admits to wanting to make up stories in the memoirs that he's writing but his secretary, Guy Pagett, keeps a firm grip on the truth and prevents him. Of course, we should be aware that Pagett probably doesn't oversee the personal diary entries in quite the same way--but it doesn't (or at least it didn't occur to me the first time I read it). He also tells us that while we may learn things (possibly disreputable) about other people, he's certainly not going to be indiscreet and allow readers of his memoirs--or, presumably, his diary--to learn disreputable things about him. Another tip-off that I missed the first time around. But then, as crafty as Christie was, there was nothing to prevent her from playing a double-bluff and creating a totally different, and for purposes of the crime totally innocent secret for Sir Eustace to keep Pagett out of the diary.

Great fun and even more enjoyable because of my sudden epiphany over the diary.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting thanks. ...more

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Apr 04, 2021 Frances rated it it was ok · review of another edition

One of Christie's standalone novels, more of espionage and intrigue than her more typical country house murder. This is also the first appearance of Colonel Race who figures in a few other novels of hers. While the plot is intriguing and deftly managed with the usual surprises in the denouement, the casual classism and racism and misogyny really mars this one. ...more

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