Title: The Secret Adversary
Author: Agatha Christie
Type: Fiction
Page Count: 224
Rating: 3.75/5
This book was a lot of fun for me because it’s the first of Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence books and so it was nice to go back to the very start when they first met each other. True, I don’t think that Christie’s necessarily at her best when she’s writing these sorts of political thrillers, but I also think that she’s pretty far ahead of her time with it too.
I also liked some of the stuff that Christie wrote here about the differences between the genders, and indeed she showed it both through the narration and through the dialogue that some of the characters had. For example, Tommy tells Tuppence that he’ll protect her, and she turns around and tells him that she’ll protect him too. Pretty interesting for 1922, which is when this was first published.
All in all then, I can see why it might not be your cup of tea if you’re a casual Christie fan, but if you’ve already read a little Marple and Poirot then this is a decent place to turn for more. Personally, I like Tommy and Tuppence, and while I know that a lot of others don’t, I’m still happy enough to be reading them.
