The Secret Adversary
Christie’s second novel is an action-packed spy thriller not a country-house whodunnit. An adventure with a few clues, and rather more bullets, strewn across the reader’s path: more John Buchan’s Richard Hannay than Hercule Poirot. Christie introduces us to the ‘Young Adventurers’ Prudence Cowley and Thomas Beresford – known to readers the world over as Tommy and Tuppence – who will pop up as amateur detectives in Christie novels over the next fifty years.
Christie keeps up the cheerful humour of the young pair in love, and in adversity, with page turning action. It’s impressive how she has the courage to try out a very different style of crime novel from the previous, successful Poirot. As courageous, and outrageously modern, as her alter-ego,Tuppence, in fact.
Dedication ‘ To all those who lead monotonous lives in the hope that they may experience at second-hand the delights and dangers of adventure’
