Title: The Man in the Brown Suit
Author: Agatha Christie
Type: Fiction
Page Count: 314
Rating: 3.75/5
This book is one of the Colonel Race books, and I think it might even be the first one that I’ve read because I can’t consciously remember him from any of my previous reads. That was nice though, because it was weirdly like making a new friend. I also liked that we follow the story through the eyes of a female protagonist, which is quite unusual for Christie. So many of them are following Poirot through the eyes of Hastings.
The story was very competently written here too, and I actually found it a pleasant surprise after The Secret of Chimneys, which was kind of disappointing. The two actually have a lot in common, in part because they’re both early works of hers and so they’re not quite as polished as her work gets later on.
I was lucky enough to read this one in a stunning facsimile edition that my uncle gave me and so I think the reading experience was boosted because of that. Still, I’d also just received a bunch of stunning Shakespeare Folio editions and so I was also keen to get to them, which basically offset it. I think if I’d been reading this in an old paperback, my attention would have started to wane by the end.
But all in all, this wasn’t bad at all, and while I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it as a first Agatha Christie book, it’s definitely worth getting to eventually. In fact, sooner rather than later would work, because it makes sense to read her early stuff earlier on and then work your way through to the later books to watch her style evolve. But maybe start with a well-known hit of hers first. Have fun reading!
