The Secret Adversary: A Tommy and Tuppence Mystery by Agatha Christie

                    Even though I have read the works of Agatha Christie for many years, it wasn’t until recently that I heard of Tommy and Tuppence.  Maybe that is because I primarily read Ms. Christie’s short stories and plays instead of her novels.  I find I enjoy her short stories and plays more than her novels, which is why when I did come across the Tommy and Tuppence mystery novels I was hesitant to pick them up.  It took me a while to finally reserve the first one from the library, but once I did, I had a hard time putting it down.              

                Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley are old friends who decide to go into business together.  Their business is one where people pay them to have adventures.  How this is supposed to work I don’t have any idea.  I even read the passage describing the business a few times and all I ended up being was confused.  Anyways, Tommy and Tuppence decide to create this business and right away Tuppence is offered a possible opportunity from a Mr. Whittington.  At first she is very excited, but as Tuppence talks to Mr. Whittington, she starts to get suspicious.  Concerned, Tuppence tells him her name is Jane Finn.  It is a name she has pulled from thin air, but it upsets Mr. Whittington.  He accuses Tuppence of being up to something and sends her away. 

                Not sure what just happened, Tuppence relays her story to Tommy.  He explains that the name “Jane Finn” did not come from nowhere because he had told her about overhearing it the day before.  Neither one knows who Jane Finn is or why it would upset Mr. Whittington so much.  They decide to put out an ad requesting information about Jane Finn.

                The day after the ad appears, Tommy and Tuppence receive two notes in response to their inquiry.  Both request a meeting.

At their first meeting, Tommy recognizes a prominent man from his days in the Intelligence.  The man is now going by the name of Mr. Carter and he agrees to fund Tommy’s and Tuppence’s investigation of Jane Finn.  Their second meeting is with a Julius Hersheimmer.  He is Jane Finn’s cousin and has come from America to look for her in order to share his inheritance.  Julius doesn’t want to just talk to Tommy and Tuppence about finding Jane, he wants to help too, which is how the investigation goes from a two person endeavor to three.

                In an attempt to find Jane before anyone else, Tommy and Tuppence go on a series of adventures with Julius along for the ride.  Both of them ask for Julius’ help, especially Tuppence when Tommy goes missing.  He was following one man while Julius tailed another and ended up getting held captive by men also interested in Jane Finn.  Tuppence, in the meantime, goes undercover as a parlourmaid for a woman who may be the key to everything. 

             There is a lot of traveling and running around in this book, but instead of making it hard to remember and follow what is going on, it makes the story exciting. Tommy and Tuppence don’t even know Jane Finn, but they go to great lengths to find her just for the fun of it. This makes me very curious as to what other adventures these two may get themselves into simply because they can.