January 2015 Book of the Month: The Secret Adversary

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Welcoming in the New Year with our January Book of the Month, The Secret Adversary will be the first of the Tommy and Tuppence books of the year.

Read more about our January Book of the Month

Tommy_A_Jones

I really enjoy this book and starting Tommy and Tuppence's Journey.

TeddyBg

For me best T&T book.

LeopoldoAtila

You're right, @TeddyBg‌ . It's the best TT. Time should never pass to TT!

Tommy_A_Jones

It is Brilliant but for me N or M is better.

anne.clough.3

Tommy_A_Jones said:

It is Brilliant but for me N or M is better.

Once again we agree.

GKCfan

This is one of a handful of books where a vital clue is very subtle– two letters– and easily missed by casual readers.

Tommy_A_Jones

I don't know what you Mean GKCfan

GKCfan

***SPOILERS***

I refer to the letter sent to Tommy, presumably from Tuppence, signed "Twopence."

The novels A Murder is Announced and Lord Edgware Dies also have clues that hinge on a single letter in a word, one spoken, one missing.

Tommy_A_Jones

I remember now, That letter seemed to me a Clumsy Clue, I can't recall the Edgware one either.

GKCfan

***SPOILERS***

The Edgware one is from the handwritten letter discovered late in the book... with an uneven torn edge.

Tommy_A_Jones

Oh Yes, I remember now, sometimes I read or hear one thing and my brain hears or reads something else, That was one of those times.

StuartBarnett

What I love about this novel is that it's the only fictional depiction of the "bright young things" of the '20s I've encountered where I don't feel like I need to take a shower afterwards. I love Waugh as well in his depictions of this generation, but once I'm done laughing, I think: these people are sociopaths, and I wouldn't want to spend more than 15 minutes around them. Also, these types of people are actually usually "bright filthy rich well-born young things." Tommy and Tuppence are ordinary people, people who served their country in the war. And, while many would see the scenario of being "down and out" after having given one's all for one's country a cause for bitterness, Tommy and Tuppence use the conversational style and attitude of the "bright young things" to take it in stride and move on. In that, I think they embody one of Christie's big messages about life: accept it and move on. 

tudes

I think it was the fourth AC that I read and I loved it. Besides N or M, it's my fav TT. It's different from a Poirot or Marple and still very enjoyable.
There's something fresh about this book and a lovely naiveness. TT, they're funny, pleasant, smart, brave. It seems that they never grow old, they can be one hundred years and their eyes still sparkling when they face a mystery or an adventure.

youngmrquin

Altough I agree it's not as good as N or M?, I agree it's an amazing journey. I read it in 2013 and I was amazed of how good it is. One of the best thrillers by AC, in my opinion.

It has also one of the most charismatic villains in all the AC canon and, I must confess, when in other discussion the question was what character would you like to be, I definitely chose Mr Brown.

It does hace some negative aspects, like the fact that the number of possible villains is severely reduced halfway the stor, and some of the events are really over the top (but again, all their books are). I always wonder how ALWAYS in their books at least one of them gets drugged and/or beaten and the are able to escape without a scratch!!!!

ChristieFanForLife

StuartBarnett said:

What I love about this novel is that it's the only fictional depiction of the "bright young things" of the '20s I've encountered where I don't feel like I need to take a shower afterwards. I love Waugh as well in his depictions of this generation, but once I'm done laughing, I think: these people are sociopaths, and I wouldn't want to spend more than 15 minutes around them. Also, these types of people are actually usually "bright filthy rich well-born young things." Tommy and Tuppence are ordinary people, people who served their country in the war. And, while many would see the scenario of being "down and out" after having given one's all for one's country a cause for bitterness, Tommy and Tuppence use the conversational style and attitude of the "bright young things" to take it in stride and move on. In that, I think they embody one of Christie's big messages about life: accept it and move on. 

That's very insightful! And Agatha Christie had her fair share of hardships and being down and out but she always seemed to have accepted it and moved on. Christie once said, "I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing." And I think it was this line of thought that kept her going. And she did move on. 

Griselda

ChristieFanForLife, it is a shame that we don't still have some of these posters from earlier years. Perhaps the 'moderators' ought to email them and say please get active again, and why did you go away?

ChristieFanForLife

@Griselda: that would be a great idea. One particular forum member I never had the privilege to discuss the books and films with and one that has posted very interesting insights from what I've seen was MissQuin and I hope she returns to the forum at some point. 

ChristieFanForLife

I wanted to add to StuartBarnett's comments when he said, "I think they [Tommy & Tuppence] embody one of Christie's big messages about life: accept it and move on." One of the things that I don't care to talk much about when talking about Agatha Christie is her "disappearance" which she doesn't refer to in her autobiography. There are some that get a kick out discussing her disappearance and that rough period in her life with her husband's infidelity which in due course lead to a divorce. Why didn't she refer to this disappearance and the thoughts that were in her head at the time? Agatha Christie wasn't one to talk about her personal life and especially in full detail but like the comment I previously mentioned, I think it's because Agatha Christie accepted that it was a part of her life, she couldn't erase it but that didn't mean that she had to talk or refer to it. She accepted that it was part of her life and she moved on from it. I'm sure thinking about it still brought about pain but she went on and lived her life. She didn't let that incident in her life immobilize or kept her in the pools of despair.