February 2021: The Secret Adversary (1922)

[Susan]

Welcome to our February 2021 challenge read of The Secret Adversary

Published in 1922 this was Christie's second published novel (the first, of course, being The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Secret Adversary, which was published in 1920.

The book introduces the characters of Tommy and Tuppence who feature in three other Christie novels and one collection of short stories, which were published between 1922 and 1973.

In this first adventure, the Great War is over, and jobs are scarce. Childhood friends Tommy Beresford and Prudence "Tuppence" Cowley meet and agree to start their own business as The Young Adventurers.

Agatha Christie's first Tommy and Tuppence book is a thrill-packed novel of international intrigue and murder with all the Christie hallmarks of suspense and ingenuity. Their advertisement says they are 'willing to do anything, go anywhere'. But their first assignment, for the sinister Mr Whittington, plunges them into more danger than they ever imagined!

Please do not post spoilers in this thread. Thank you.

[Susan]

Our - and my - first Tommy and Tuppence! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

[Robin]

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel the first time, and shall have fun re-reading it. I like the post war environment, dealing as it does with the difficulties of even well educated people finding paid work.

[Judy]

I enjoyed this and feel it's well written and compulsive reading, but the thriller plot is absolutely bonkers, as with some of the early Margery Allingham and Patricia Wentworth adventures.

[Susan]

Yes, I'm not a fan of those thriller plots. It did read like a Campion - another series I am not quite sure whether I like or not, even if I like the characters. Still, good fun and very much in line with other novels of the day.

[Sandy]

This was a reread for me, but other than the name 'Jane Finn' I forgot the plot, so had as much fun this time as the first. Bonkers is an accurate description.

[Susan in NC]

Judy wrote: "I enjoyed this and feel it's well written and compulsive reading, but the thriller plot is absolutely bonkers, as with some of the early Margery Allingham and Patricia Wentworth adventures."

I really enjoyed this one, I don’t recall reading it before, but I found Tommy and Tuppence much more appealing than they were in the last dramatization I saw (can’t remember actors, but Tuppence was played by one of the original Call the Midwife nurses).

I know the cheesier, thriller elements are silly, and they were like babes in arms wandering into dangerous situations, but they were appealing to me from the beginning- I sympathized with their situation, wanting to make their way on their own, after serving in the War and being out in the world. I imagine crawling home with your tail between your legs would feel like failure; I just rolled my eyes at the silly bits and tried to enjoy the adventure, like an Indiana Jones film! Like Judy, I found it compulsive reading- and listening to the audiobook while knitting was fun.

[Abigail]

I have a very heavy schedule of appealing group reads this month so it will be a while before I get around to this one.

[Judy]

Susan, the most recent TV version was Partners in Crime with David Walliams and Jessica Raine - just checked, I'd remembered it was David Walliams playing Tommy but forgotten who Tuppence was! It was set in the 1950s and not very similar to the book but I quite enjoyed it.

[Susan in NC]

Judy wrote: "Susan, the most recent TV version was Partners in Crime with David Walliams and Jessica Raine - just checked, I'd remembered it was David Walliams playing Tommy but forgotten who Tuppence was! It w..."

That’s right, thank you! I think I missed the first episode, caught the later ones - no wonder it seemed different, set in a different era! I hadn’t read any later T&T mysteries, so can’t compare how the tv show compared to the books.

[Judy]

Abigail wrote: "I have a very heavy schedule of appealing group reads this month so it will be a while before I get around to this one."

A nice problem to have, Abigail. :)

[Abigail]

Indeed! Six or seven of them, and I've read one and a half so far.

[Judy]

For anyone who hasn't started this one yet, a word of warning about the edition on Kindle Unlimited with the chess pieces on the cover. I got about halfway through when the text became strangely garbled - it seemed as if someone had fed it into a thesaurus/predictive text and it had different words instead of the original ones, and sometimes it just had different words starting with the same letter!! I had to give up and read a different edition at this point.

[Abigail]

What a pain! I've had that happen a time or two.

[Susan in NC]

Abigail wrote: "Indeed! Six or seven of them, and I've read one and a half so far."

I’m in the same boat, but with library books! I had several holds come in at once - I was set for our February reads, but now I’ll have to put the next Flavia reread and Beckoning Lady back a couple weeks while I plow through my library loans.

[Robin]

I like the prologue immensely. It sets the scene so quickly, giving us a background to the more detailed and discursive story in which Tommy and Tuppence investigate the outcome of the intriguing glimpse in the prologue.

This is smart writing, and something that, from my experience, is not often discussed when looking at Agatha Christie novels,.

The move to the post war experience of job hunting, the way in which Tuppence regards her background and Tommy's feelings about his uncle are drawn well. Possibly the story is 'bonkers' but it is well formulated in the terms in which Christie is working. That is, the echoes of war time secrets and experiences in post war circumstances. I suspect that Christie was not alone in writing accessible 'spy' type novels.

[Michaela]

I already read this, and it wasn´t to my taste, but hope to comment.

[Susan]

It was only her second novel and, as such, I think a brilliant effort. She did some other spy/gang books and we'll be reading some of them in the challenge, but I am pleased she mainly stuck with murder...

[Susan in NC]

Robin wrote: "I like the prologue immensely. It sets the scene so quickly, giving us a background to the more detailed and discursive story in which Tommy and Tuppence investigate the outcome of the intriguing g..."

I agree, especially in the post-war 20s, there was a real fear of communist revolutionaries toppling Western governments, as in Russia. Someone pointed out how similar this was to early Campions, with the spies/labor unrest/revolution threat, I imagine since writers often get inspired by headlines, many thriller and mystery writers were trying it out.

[Susan in NC]

Susan wrote: "It was only her second novel and, as such, I think a brilliant effort. She did some other spy/gang books and we'll be reading some of them in the challenge, but I am pleased she mainly stuck with m..."

True! It does seem rather sensational, but I think she did well, considering she couldn’t really walk up to whatever the British MI5 of the 20s (sorry, don’t know what it was called then), and say, “Hello, I’m a writer, please tell me all of your current operational methods for my book.”

[Susan]

Susan in NC wrote: "Susan wrote: "It was only her second novel and, as such, I think a brilliant effort. She did some other spy/gang books and we'll be reading some of them in the challenge, but I am pleased she mainl..."

True. MI5 was only formed in 1909.

[Susan in NC]

Susan wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "Susan wrote: "It was only her second novel and, as such, I think a brilliant effort. She did some other spy/gang books and we'll be reading some of them in the challenge, but I ..."

Wow, I thought it was after WWII, out of some secret army unit or something!

[Jill]

Susan in NC wrote: "Susan wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "Susan wrote: "It was only her second novel and, as such, I think a brilliant effort. She did some other spy/gang books and we'll be reading some of them in the cha..."

Something I thought you might be interested in

https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/aga...

[Susan in NC]

Thanks!

[Susan]

I think that spying was used as far back as Afghanistan - The Great Game as Kipling labelled it - The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia and probably before. However, certainly it became more organised during WWI. M: Maxwell Knight, MI5's Greatest Spymaster is an interesting read about the early secret service and start of MI5.

[Roman Clodia]

Spying as a 'thing' certainly existed in the Renaissance: Francis Walsingham had a sophisticated spy network that infiltrated supposed Catholic plots to dethrone Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots. He used professional 'informers' as well as occasional recruits and it was all under the auspices of Elizabeth's government. Francis Walsingham, Spymaster.

Aphra Behn, more famous for her Restoration plays and novels, went 'undercover' for Charles II's government in the Anglo-Dutch wars, too.

[Susan]

Oh, yes, of course. Walsingham was the first spymaster, wasn't he?

[Roman Clodia]

There are examples of spying as an activity far earlier - I'm thinking of Alcibiades, for example, during the wars in 5th century Athens but maybe Walsingham's was the first 'official' spy network?

We do get into interesting side discussion, don't we?!

[Susan in NC]

Roman Clodia wrote: "There are examples of spying as an activity far earlier - I'm thinking of Alcibiades, for example, during the wars in 5th century Athens but maybe Walsingham's was the first 'official' spy network?..."

I enjoy them - I love historical mystery series, this discussion made me think of the snake pit of Henry’s court in the Matthew Shardlake series, and Paul Doherty’s Hugh Corbett series, set during one of the Edward’s reign - apologies, not up on my English kings, but definitely not the Confessor. It was in the 1300s - lots of spying to control enemies, compete with the French.

[Tara]

Roman Clodia wrote: "There are examples of spying as an activity far earlier - I'm thinking of Alcibiades, for example, during the wars in 5th century Athens but maybe Walsingham's was the first 'official' spy network?..."

I would assume there has been spying for as long as there has been diplomacy.

[Susan]

Yes, I was thinking more of MI5 in terms of this novel. A very fledgling organisation at the time and with an interesting history, but I suppose espionage has always been used. All those ciphers and secret messages have led to the downfall of many, including Queen of Scots, if we go back to Walsingham.

[Infosifter]

I'm enjoying this one so far; it's nice to read a fun adventure in between heavier things. In some of Christie's character descriptions, you can see her prejudices or at least prejudices that were common in the time she was writing about. One thing I've noticed recently since doing group reads of mysteries written in different eras is how social change is reflected in things like the way characters are described, and the way police are or are not allowed to speak of suspects or witnesses.

[Susan]

Absolutely, Kellie. So many of these GA mysteries are also, inadvertently, social histories now. I love a lot of the Christianna Brand as I find her descriptions of dress shops, complete with mannequins to model the dresses, or early holiday camps, so interesting.

[Jessica-sim]

This will be a reread for me, and I promised the book on my shelves that I would pick it up this month BUT now that I discovered there is an audiobook read by Hugh Fraser, I do not think I can resist that ....

it is a terrible case of book betrayal haha

[Sandy]

Jessica wrote: "This will be a reread for me, and I promised the book on my shelves that I would pick it up this month BUT now that I discovered there is an audiobook read by Hugh Fraser, I do not think I can resi..."

Hugh Fraser is worth it and you can keep the physical book along side as you listen for reference. Stroke it with apologies now and again.

[Judy]

I'm sure the book will forgive you, Jessica. ;)

[Tara]

Jessica wrote: "This will be a reread for me, and I promised the book on my shelves that I would pick it up this month BUT now that I discovered there is an audiobook read by Hugh Fraser, I do not think I can resi..."

I second Sandy that Hugh is most definitely worth it. I often skip my physical books in favor of him.

[Jessica-sim]

Haha I am so happy you all understood the problem!

I stroked the book with apologies as per Sandy's advice and went with the audiobook ;-)

[Adrian]

Jessica wrote: "I stroked the book with apologies as per Sandy's advice and went with the audiobook ;-)"

Gosh I don't think my book would have forgiven me that easily 😉

Similar to others above, I think this is my first T&T, although I can't believe that, but maybe it is just my memory playing up.
T'was enjoyable and romped along at a fair old pace, but as Judy said (I think) there were slightly bonkers aspects to it, fun but bonkers.

(As a slight cross pollination, I still haven't read Curtain yet, I can't bring myself to finish them, agh)

[Susan in NC]

Jessica wrote: "This will be a reread for me, and I promised the book on my shelves that I would pick it up this month BUT now that I discovered there is an audiobook read by Hugh Fraser, I do not think I can resi..."

I adore Hugh Fraser narrating Christie - never disappoints!

[Susan in NC]

Adrian wrote: "Jessica wrote: "I stroked the book with apologies as per Sandy's advice and went with the audiobook ;-)"

Gosh I don't think my book would have forgiven me that easily 😉

Similar to others above, I..."
Don’t blame you, Adrian, I was kind of dreading Curtain, but found it very moving and well done - really got me thinking, about a lot of things. The group discussion was interesting, also. I think this was my first T&T, also - enjoyed it more than I thought I would, it was fun.

I missed the group’s first year reading the earlier Poirot mysteries, plan to work those in between other books this year and next (so many books to look forward to!)

[Robin]

Susan in NC wrote: "Susan wrote: "It was only her second novel and, as such, I think a brilliant effort. She did some other spy/gang books and we'll be reading some of them in the challenge, but I am pleased she mainl..."

I like your comment

[Adrian]

Susan in NC wrote: "Don’t blame you, Adrian, I was kind of dreading Curtain, but found it very moving and well done - really got me thinking, about a lot of things. ..."

Well I finally finished Curtain, and likewise it was enjoyable, moving and thought provoking.
(Apologies for slightly going off piste)

[Susan in NC]

Robin wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "Susan wrote: "It was only her second novel and, as such, I think a brilliant effort. She did some other spy/gang books and we'll be reading some of them in the challenge, but I ..."

Thanks! Sorry, I wasn’t getting comments notifications for a bit there, but all seems well, now!🤞🏼

[Susan in NC]

Adrian wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "Don’t blame you, Adrian, I was kind of dreading Curtain, but found it very moving and well done - really got me thinking, about a lot of things. ..."

Well I finally finished Cu..."

Oh, Adrian, I’m glad - that’s what I felt! It was heartbreaking, in a way, but such a treat to see Hastings again - and as you say, surprisingly thought provoking, with many of the characters discussing their feelings on life and it’s value.