N or M?: A Tommy and Tuppence Mystery

Rating:
Summary: A classic political thriller
Review: During World War II, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford follow an obscure clue to a small English seaside town where a Nazi mastermind is recruiting Englishmen to help their cause. But who at the hotel is the mastermind? When a young child is kidnapped, Tommy and Tuppence believe they're on the right track, but are they? This riveting thriller is Christie at her best. It's a noteworthy for the political slant she includes, because that's not terribly common for her books. It constantly amazes me the amount of pertinent details Christie includes for the readers. Some are red herrings, and some are decisive. Agatha Christie was certainly the best.

Rating:
Summary: The best of Tommy and Tuppence I've ever read!
Review: I decided to read this book because it not only was an Agatha Christie but it envolves Tommy and Tuppence. They are my favorite charcters and did not disapoint me. Tuppence is my favorite, of course, because she is so like me. However even if you aren't like me you will love this book. With just enough mystery and suspence mixed in with common logic Agatha Christie gave us another one of her famous stories. It's the best I've read in a long time

Rating:
Summary: awesome!
Review: i have been borrowing a couple of her books from the library after a long hiatus of 5-6 years. n or m is my first introduction to tommy and tuppence, and i must say they are a light-hearted, action-oriented departure from christie's other investigators, who give the impression of spending a lot of time in situ, whether at the murder scenes or comtemplating the case. christie veers from teh pack in her stubborn regard for the facts and teh circumstances; i have never done any professional spying, but i imagine if i did that i could take a few hints from her detailed analysis of how her characters think and act. so many detectives in detective novels strike you as so ordinary - some are not even very smart - but in this book you see the true complexity of wartime counter-espionage come to life, all the more frightening because it lurks beneath a veneer of everyday monotony. i love how she injects obscure words now and then...reminds you of a time when people didn't just use er..awesome as an umbrella expression for pleasure!

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding piece of wartime fiction!
Review: Normally Agatha Christie chooses to focus on the mysteries and not really concentrate on political and social events of that period; consequently her characters sometimes seem to be living in a vaccuum, removed from all that is happening around them. What makes "N or M?" unusual is that Christie chose to focus on WWII and what was happening in England at that time. Tommy and Tuppence who are living quietly in London suddenly find their routine interrupted when Tommy is called away on a secret assignment to try and find Hitler's most dangerous agent who has infiltrated England in advance of a planned attack by the Nazis. Of course, Tuppence who refuses to be left out of anything, follows him and actively helps him while posing as a garrulous widow. The book is more powerful than most because of the very real sense of menace that Christie creates and the feeling of evil lurking in the air. Wingding suspense and a knock-out ending - the only flaw was the focus on romance. Normally, it is nice to have a romantic attachment develop in Christie's books as they provide a nice relief to the mystery, but in this case I thought she should have concentrated only on the mystery; romance is almost superfluous in such a setting. It's interesting to think that while Tommy and Tuppence never actually existed, there may have been characters like them - ordinary people who possessed above-average intelligence who were picked to lead dangerous spy missions and who succeeded precisely because they were so ordinary and therefore not what the enemy was expecting.

Rating:
Summary: Great setting, good plot
Review: This is the 39th book Agatha Christie wrote. She published it in 1941, in the mid of World War II. It is said that she wrote this story while London was suffering under the German air attacks. Agatha never wanted to leave London during these attacks, because she felt too involved. The novel is one of two which the author worked on simultaneously during World War II while she stayed alone in London. She alternated writing 'Body in the Library' and 'N or M?' to keep herself "fresh at task."

Although not being a big fan of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford I must admit that this story was quite special. This book is one of the few Agatha Christie wrote that have a historical background. It has certainly a nice atmosphere to it. First I was a bit put-off by the amazingly unrealistic espionage rubbish often seen in this kind of books, but discovered to my surprise that some -not all- subplots would not have been miscast in an average Poirot adventure. It was quite refreshing to see that Agatha had put this story in an almost realistic setting: the struggle against collaborators that tried to prepare a German attack on the coast of England.

Not the best of her works, but certainly very close.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding piece of wartime fiction!
Review: Tommy and Tuppence are excellent in this book. After Poirot, they are my favourite. I never guessed the murderer, and it was exciting and interesting every minute. I loved the suspense, and I read it in only one day. I highly reccomend this book to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: So, Mummy, just what DID you and Daddy do during the war?
Review: Tommy and Tuppence Beresford (SECRET ADVERSARY and PARTNERS IN CRIME) are now a middle aged couple who have two grown children, twins Deborah and Derek. It is the opening days of WWII, England is bracing for the Blitz and all citizens are anxious to "do their bit". Unfortunately while the twins are away on military assignments, the older Beresfords are deemed to be too old for active service. They are urged to take up service at home, like knitting. Ultimately though Tommy's old contacts pay off - for him at least - he is offered a desk job in a restricted area, Tuppence must remain at home, with the hated knitting.

It is later revealed that the desk job is a ruse and Tommy is needed for an undercover assignment. Tuppence is one step ahead as usual and arrives on the scene before Tommy. Together the two work to ferret out a spy ring on the English coast. As always with these two there are deceptions, kidnappings and last minute rescues before the triumphant conclusion.

It is nice to see what old friends have been up to in the intervening years and good to see that they haven't lost a step. Christie does an excellent job of capturing the atmosphere of the time, the tension as the war builds and the anxious waiting to hear news of loved ones in peril.

There are a couple of problems though for long time fans of this series. Judging from the publication dates of the earlier novels, 1922 and 1929, Tommy and Tuppence are in their early 40s and the twins are 11 years old during this one. Even going by the slighly different time frame listed in this novel the twins cannot be more than teenagers and Tommy would still be very young to be retired.

The plot is, as usual for Christie, clever and designed to keep the reader guessing until the end. The final chapter is, in keeping with the rest of the series, a nice, sentimental touch.

Rating:
Summary: So, Mummy, just what DID you and Daddy do during the war?
Review: Tommy and Tuppence Beresford (SECRET ADVERSARY and PARTNERS IN CRIME) are now a middle aged couple who have two grown children, twins Deborah and Derek. It is the opening days of WWII, England is bracing for the Blitz and all citizens are anxious to "do their bit". Unfortunately while the twins are away on military assignments, the older Beresfords are deemed to be too old for active service. They are urged to take up service at home, like knitting. Ultimately though Tommy's old contacts pay off - for him at least - he is offered a desk job in a restricted area, Tuppence must remain at home, with the hated knitting.

It is later revealed that the desk job is a ruse and Tommy is needed for an undercover assignment. Tuppence is one step ahead as usual and arrives on the scene before Tommy. Together the two work to ferret out a spy ring on the English coast. As always with these two there are deceptions, kidnappings and last minute rescues before the triumphant conclusion.

It is nice to see what old friends have been up to in the intervening years and good to see that they haven't lost a step. Christie does an excellent job of capturing the atmosphere of the time, the tension as the war builds and the anxious waiting to hear news of loved ones in peril.

There are a couple of problems though for long time fans of this series. Judging from the publication dates of the earlier novels, 1922 and 1929, Tommy and Tuppence are in their early 40s and the twins are 11 years old during this one. Even going by the slighly different time frame listed in this novel the twins cannot be more than teenagers and Tommy would still be very young to be retired.

The plot is, as usual for Christie, clever and designed to keep the reader guessing until the end. The final chapter is, in keeping with the rest of the series, a nice, sentimental touch.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Spy Thriller
Review: When one thinks of Agatha Christie, one usually thinks of novels in which a sharp-minded detective--such as Hercule Poirot or Jane Marple--unravels a tightly plotted puzzle from the comfortable safety of an arm chair. But Christie sometimes defies this concept of her work with a spy-thriller, and N OR M?, set during the early days of World War II, is among her best efforts in that direction.

The novel re-introduces husband and wife Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, characters Christie originally created for the much earlier spy-thriller THE SECRET ADVERSARY--and they are among her most immediately likable protagonists: quick witted, snappy, and unwilling to sit in an armchair when they can be up and doing things. Although they have been long out of the espionage game, when rumors indicate that one of Hitler's most trusted agents has arrived in England. they are sent to a small coastal boarding house in an effort to unmask the spy who might be hiding among the apparently innocent residents.

Readers will enjoy becoming reacquainted with Tommy and Tuppence, who Christie presents with considerable charm--and unlike the other novels in which they appear N OR M? is as much mystery as pure adventure: the book contains one of Christie's trademark twists at the conclusion. Although somewhat mild by the standards of her more famous novels, Christie endows the tale with a subtle sense of menace that serves it well; fans will enjoy the book, and newcomers will have a good time too.