The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie ~ 1922. This edition: Bantam, 1986. Paperback. ISBN: 0-553-26477-X. 215 pages.
My Rating: 7/10
Setting: Mostly London, with a few excursions into the countryside; immediately post Great War, 1919.
Detection by: Thomas Beresford (TOMMY) and Prudence Cowley (a.k.a. TUPPENCE)
Final Body Count: 2
Method(s) of Murder: POISON – death #1 from an overdose of chloral , and death #2 by cyanide
100 Word Plot Summary:
Who is Jane Finn, and why has she vanished after escaping from the sinking Lusitania with a secret document entrusted to her by its doomed courier? That paper could have changed the course of the war, but why is the British Secret Service still keen to recover it now, 5 years later? Why the competing hunt by a group of Bolshevik anarchists, led by the mysterious “Mr Brown”? Tommy Beresford and “Tuppence” Cowley, newly demobbed and desperate for jobs, join forces and market their services to Jane Finn’s rich American cousin, whose interest in her seems just a little overenthusiastic…
*****
Agatha Christie’s second published work is a slightly more ambitious story than The Mysterious Affair at Styles; and it’s changed in style as well: dramatic thriller rather than sedate country house murder mystery. The tone is breathless, the plot improbable, the villains all degrees of wicked (urbane to thuggish), and the “women in question” suitably mysterious – as well as stunningly beautiful. What a grand little period piece of colourful writing, silly though the whole scenario is.
Here’s the devious (and exotically lovely) Mrs Vandemeyer, who, incidentally, knows more about “Mr Brown” than is healthy for her long-term survival:
A woman was standing by the fireplace. She was no longer in her first youth, and the beauty she undeniably possessed was hardened and coarsened. In her youth she must have been dazzling. Her pale gold hair, owing a slight assistance to art, was coiled low on her neck, her eyes, of a piercing electric blue, seemed to possess a faculty of boring into the very soul of the person she was looking at. Her exquisite figure was enhanced by a wonderful gown of indigo charmeuse. And yet, despite her swaying grace, and the almost ethereal beauty of her face, you felt instinctively the presence of something hard and menacing, a kind of metallic strength that found expression in the tones of her voice and in that gimlet-like quality of her eyes.
Gimlet eyes and indigo charmeuse; obviously up to no good. Beware!
Young adventurers Tommy and Tuppence are a rollicking change from the pompous Poirot and sober Hastings of her first novel; Agatha Christie was to follow The Secret Adversary with four other books featuring the pair, spaced throughout the years, with the characters aging appropriately.
Though I found this an amusing enough read, with plenty of nostalgia value, I couldn’t quite buy into the whole Bolshevist plot side of things; too many vagaries and improbabilities. (Even at my first reading as a young teenager, I recall a feeling of cynical disbelief; this was never one of my favourite Christies.) But so much scope of course for all sorts of shenanigans – secret identities, people vanishing, other people being tied up in windowless rooms, threats of torture, beautiful girls, invisible ink, car chases, shots fired that just miss our heroes – it’s all in here.
An early dustjacket – possibly from the first edition*. Note the red flag and the Russian bear behind the mask of “Mr Brown”! (February 2017 – A reader has just commented that this is not the first edition cover; that one apparently has a picture of a woman – presumably Jane Finn? – on it. I’ll keep an eye out for that one in my internet travels.)
Another early dustjacket, with “Mr Brown” as the chess master moving his human pieces about the board.
Tuppence with a tidy hairdo and a sedate string of pearls; her companion just a wee bit more appropriately tousled – though not much, considering the threatening figure in the foreground! I’m guessing 1950s for this dramatic paperback cover.
Another Pan paperback, this one for the North American market, and possibly released a few years later than the one just above. Great villains-eye view from behind the handgun.
I couldn’t resist including this rather elegant paperback cover, from a more recent (I’m guessing 1970s or 1980s) French edition.
And from 2008, this attractive poster-like cover of a graphic novel version, playing up the Lusitania connection.
Leaves & Pages 
I have only skim read your review because I am intending to read this book next week. On Saturday I am going to Devon for a weeks break. One of the things (other than sit by the sea and read) I am planning to do is visit Agatha Christies house – amazingly enough despite lots of Devon holidays I have never been. I have The Secret Adversary on my kindle had thought it would be a perfect holiday read.
Oh, lucky you! I hope you have a lovely holiday. Reading The Secret Adversary in the vicinity of Agatha Christie’s house – how perfect! I hope you will be sharing thoughts (and maybe photos? 🙂 ) when you get back.
I just might 🙂
Thanks for sharing these great covers. I’m a big fan of cover art in all its variations. And a graphic novel version? What larks!
These covers are quite marvelous, aren’t they? I’m especially appreciating the details that show that the cover artist actually read and thought about the story, and, conversely, the absolutely dreadful covers where you can see that the illustrator – and too frequently the “blurb” writer – had NO idea of the actual plot!!! I’m just a tiny bit curious about the graphic novel version; it’s only 48 pages long (according to the site where I found the cover art) and I’m wondering how they packed everything in, and how much they changed the presentation. Interesting… 🙂
I have never been able to enjoy the Tommy and Tuppence books as much as I do Christie’s other series or even the stand-alones. There are just too many, to use your word, shenanigans. They are still fun books but I can’t admire them as I do many of Christie’s other efforts.
I had no idea this was only her second book! I need to pay more attention to her writing/publishing timeline. I love Tommy & Tuppence, and I enjoy the shenanigans 🙂 and they’re both just good eggs.
I had no idea about the chronology, either, until I started this little project. It’s very interesting, how knowledge of where the author is at in her writing career influences how I’m viewing her stories. I’m now on the third book, The Murder on the Links, which I had somehow always assumed was a much later book, too. Perhaps because my personal copy is from the 1970s? But now that I know that it is only the 2nd Poirot book, everything “clicks” into place a little more smoothly; obviously the author is still developing her characters (Poirot & Hastings), whereas I as a reader am already familiar with them (more familiar than their creator was, at this point in the book sequence) from reading other books further along in the sequence. Or at least that is my theory at this point! 😉
I think the dustjacket cover you state might be 1st edition, is actually from a later impression. The actual 1st edition cover had the picture of a lady (maybe Jane finn?).
The one you depict (with the red flag, the Russian Bear and the villain Mr Brown behind the mask) is an earlier edition though.
Thanks for the information, Naveed! Much appreciated. I’ve noted this on the caption for that cover.