The Secret Adversary

Author: Agatha Christie

Year Published: January 1922

Originally Published by: The Bodley Head

Where to get: Amazon or local library

The Secret Adversary is the second book published by Agatha Christie. It’s the first of a series of books featuring the characters of Tommy and Tuppence in the role of mystery solvers.

Essentially every character in the book is interested in important papers that were thought to have gone down with the RMS Lusitania on May 7, 2015. Soon its revealed that the papers exist and there’s a race to see who can obtain them first, as they may cause the next world war. We’re introduced to Tuppence and Tommy who, when down on their luck, decide to open a business called The Young Adventurers, LTD. They are hired to find the person who was said to last have the important papers and they are sucked into a world of deception and murder.

The strength of the book is the story. On the surface it sounds exciting and piques your interest to read further. That’s essentially it, the story when summarized is the strength of this book.

The weaknesses of this book are plenty. The language often used throughout the book is older English and cockney English as well, making certain story lines hard to follow. There were also too many story lines within the book, I counted at least 6, so the book was expecting the reader to be able to follow which wouldn’t be difficult except for the fact that the storylines jump all over the place.

If I’m honest with myself, I really didn’t like this book. It didn’t give me the thrill and satisfaction that Agatha Christie usually brings with her work. I was frustrated with the multiple story lines, older English language used and found myself quite bored at times. It took me a while to finish this book because I had to take frequent breaks to relieve myself and then found bravery to continue on. I feel like Agatha is still trying to find her voice with this second book and I know at one point she finds it.

Star Rating: 1 out of 5

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Author: Agatha Christie    

Year Published: 1920

Originally published by: John Lane

Where to get: Local Library or Amazon

This is the first publication by Agatha Christie and is the first book to introduce Hercule Poirot, the famous Belgian detective in many of her novels to come. The book’s narrative is told by Arthur Hastings, who is staying at his friends estate when the lady of the house is murdered. He happens to know the perfect man for this mystery, Hercule Poirot. The reader is meant to be taken on a journey to discover the truth. Does he reach that destination? Yes.

Without getting into any spoilers you follow the character Arthur Hastings around the village where the story takes place and see everything through his perspective. He is a voluntary Watson to the famous Poirot and throughout the book discusses who he thinks committed the crime. At first no one suspects murder until Poirot finds several pieces of evidence that doesn’t fit a natural death. One by one he interviews the family members present at the time of the murder as well as staff.

Someone is soon arrested and put on trial for the murder, but almost too quickly according to Poirot. Did they catch the correct criminal or is all the evidence seemingly too good to be true? Essentially you as the reader must decide.

The books strengths are its delivery, characters and atmosphere. You are on a journey and trying to solve the mystery along with protagonists and you feel their frustrations and victories.

The books weaknesses are its pace (very slow), and sometimes there are ongoing conversations that could be kept a bit shorter and still proven the point. Also, it feels like it was written a bit an old English style rather than a more simplistic one. The book was written in the early 1900s but sometimes while reading it, it feels like language used in the 1800s.

While the book’s pace is a bit slow at times and the language used to write it is a bit stiff and older, the story was still a great mystery. While reading you do start to pinpoint a few characters you think it might be, but how you get to the answer is interesting. Would just recommend being prepared for the older English used and being patient with the pace. While not my favorite Agatha Christie novel, I do appreciate it’s contribution to her career overall.

Star Rating: 3 out of 5