Rating: 
Summary: NO SECRET HERE - A FINE VOICE PERFORMANCE
Review: Popular performer Samantha Bond uses her wonderful British voice to best advantage in reading this -not-too-heavy tale by the doyenne of mysteries, Agatha Christie.
Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley suffer from a common malady - they need money. So, being an imaginative pair they decide to hire themselves out as adventurers, if you will, able and ready to tackle anything for a sum.
Better be careful what you ask for - they're retained by the evil Mr. Whittington who is a threat not only to Great Britain but also to our impecunious pair.
As they say, two heads are better than one but Tommy and Tuppence must use all the brainpower each possesses to get out of this scrape.
The dialogue features frequent feasts of repartee - a thoroughly entertaining listen.
- Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: THE SECRET ADVERSARY (DODD, MEAD, & COMPANY/1922)
Review: "THE SECRET ADVERSARY" introduces two new reoccurring characters: Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. They are featured in five books which span five decades ("PARTNERS IN CRIME", "N OR M?", "BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS", and "POSTERN OF FATE" round out the list) and are usually (and quite unfairly) overlooked in the vast Christie canon. Here they meet as friends and get mixed up in espionage and murder while trying to retrieve some important documents thought to have gone down with the Lusitania, and by the end of the book tie the knot in a most touching and humorous proposal. This is a good thriller with lots of action and suspense as the two sleuths and the reader try to unmask the identity of the elusive Mr. Brown who is instigating a revolutionary uprising against the Allied forces In Britian. HARSH LANGUAGE: about 32 words, VIOLENCE: about 4 scenes, SEXUAL REFERENCES: none.
Rating: 
Summary: A fun ride through history's dark moments
Review: After all, this novel was about an important document that would turn history on its head. In the days of great ocean liners, a secret document was sent to America for safekeeping aboard the Lusitania. The ship sank, but not before the man who kept this document gave it away to someone. Fast forward to Tommy and Tuppence who were both almost jobless and had no rich boyfriend/girlfriend to turn to. Tuppence had the idea to turn themselves into an adventuring couple and sent an ad to the news. What follows is a rigmarole of mistaken identity, blatant lies and international intrigue.'The secret adversary' effectively introduces Tommy and Tuppence as the power couple of the detective world. The Queen's narrative is as lively as the characters itself, and you'll find yourself reading this to the wee hours of them morning.
Rating:
Summary: Whimsical Adventure With Charming Characters
Review: Although best known for her tightly plotted murder mysteries, Agatha Christie occasionally turned her hand to the purely outrageous adventure--and in this area THE SECRET ADVERSARY, a tale of two amateurs pitted against a master criminal--is one of her most successful works. Much of the book's charm arises from its period feel. Written in the 1920s, it effectively captures the "anything goes" quality of the era through both its outlandish story and its leading characters: Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley, two "bright young things" who find themselves without jobs in the wake of World War I and who casually advertise their services as "young adventurers." The absurdity of the story, which concerns a kidnapped American survivor of the ill-fated Lusitania in possession of important dipolmatic papers, combines with the lighthearted personalities of Tommy and Tuppence in a very enjoyable way, and although some may dismiss it as too lightweight an effort to rank among Christie's finest, most will find it very amusing and extremely charming in an purely escapist way. On a purely personal note, THE SECRET ADVERSARY was the first Christie novel I ever read. As I recall, I was about twelve years old, I thought it was tremendous good fun, and even these many years later I still occasionally return to it for the innocent charm of its witty characters as they romp through 1920s London on their ridiculous, funny, and extremely entertaining spree. It is nonsense of course, but no less enjoyable for it. Lots of fun!
Rating:
Summary: Another brilliant one
Review: Christie's variety can often astound those who first come across her. Whether it be a tense, well plotted detective story, a sharp psycholgical thriller with twists at every turn, an adventure, a spy story, a tale of international intrgue, she never fails to dissappoint. This time she turns her hand to an incredibly exciting adventure story, introducing two heroes who are even more enjoyable to read about than Poirot or Marple. (Perosnally, of all her detective, T&T are my favourites. I wish she'd done more books with them in.) The story begins incredibly well, aboard the sinking Lusitania. A secret document is passed to a young girl, who escapes the floundering ship. Years later, someone wants that document badly, and is even prepared to kill for it...as it contains secrets which could bring down Britain. Enter Tommy and Tuppence on the trail, and thus begins an incredibly entertaining tale of intrgue, adventure, and death. Lots of action, lots of suspense, murder and mystery added in for extra spice. I have to say, i did guess the identity of the culprit (mind you, it was almost the only Agatha Christie book in which i did.) But that is not a bad thing. When, in some cases, you guess the culprit correctly, it can bring the reader an intense sense of satisfaction, knowing that, just this once, Christie didn't manage to outwit you completely. (After all, these books are challenges to the reader to work out "whodunnit" before the detective.) Tommy and Tuppence are incredibly likeable, and i was immensely pleased to discover that she had written more (if few) books about them. This one is a refreshing must for all Christie fans. (Mind you, if you are a Christie fan, i need not tell you that. Doubtless you plan to read them all anyway. As you should.)
Rating:
Summary: Young Adventurers vs. Militant Labor Unions
Review: Great light beach reading in this little known series of Agatha Christie's Young Adventurers. In this first appearance, the soon to be husband and wife team of Tommy and Tuppence cast off their post-war boredom by hiring themselves out as adventurers.
They soon find themselves Britain's only hope against an unbelievable collection of thugs, unionists, and socialists bent on destroying the empire in ways that can only be spoken of in whispers. The chrismatic yet unknown Mr. Brown is behind all of this, and no one knows who he is. Join our heroes as they chase him down with several false leads and misidentifications. After almost a century this tale still holds up well. The sinking of the Lusitania and other events of the Great War play a prominent role as Victorian life provides our setting.
Rating:
Summary: An early Christie caper.
Review: Moving into a writing career that was to make her the world's most published author, Agatha Christie sent his book to her publisher in the early 1920s. Already her strengths are evident: her gift for story telling, her ability to engage a likely readership aged from 8 to 80, her ability to pull a fast one on her readers, and her ability to reproduce actual ordinary conversation. In the 1920s it was normal to hear young adults calling each other "Old Bean" and "Old Thing", and they do so here. A weakness still is her inability to devise a means of dispensing with the requirement for long explanations, at the end of a mystery novel "The Secret Adversary" is not a pure mystery novel, however. It is part romance, part adventure, part ripping yarn, and part whodunit. Agatha Christie takes up some of the props found in each of these types of fiction. There are the lively young adults, Tommy and Tuppence, eager to make ends meet by undertaking a little detective work. There is the hunt for a secret document that will determine the fate of the great nations of the world. There are the apparent adversaries ("The German" is one of them), and the incredible eavesdropping and kidnapping situations. Avid Christie readers will want to sample this early work, but general readers should choose from her productions of the 1930s.
Rating:
Summary: An early Christie caper.
Review: Moving into a writing career that was to make her the world's most published author, Agatha Christie sent this book to her publisher in the early 1920s. Already her strengths are evident: her gift for story telling, her ability to engage a likely readership aged from 8 to 80, her ability to pull a fast one on her readers, and her ability to reproduce actual ordinary conversation. In the 1920s it was normal to hear young adults calling each other "Old Bean" and "Old Thing", and they do so here. A weakness still is her inability to devise a means of dispensing with the requirement for long explanations, at the end of a mystery novel "The Secret Adversary" is not a pure mystery novel, however. It is part romance, part adventure, part ripping yarn, part thriller, and part whodunit. Agatha Christie takes up some of the props found in each of these types of fiction. There are the lively young adults, Tommy and Tuppence, eager to make ends meet by undertaking a little detective work. There is the hunt for a secret document that will determine the fate of the great nations of the world. There are the apparent adversaries ("The German" is one of them), and the incredible eavesdropping and kidnapping situations. Avid Christie readers will want to sample this early work, but general readers should choose from her productions of the 1930s.
Rating:
Summary: Agatha Christie fools us again!
Review: The Secret Adversary introduces Tommy and Tuppence Beresford to the world. Young and rather foolish, Tommy and Tuppence offer themselves as paid adventurers to the general public. "No unreasonable offer refused," their ad claims. When someone actually takes Tuppence up on the advertisement, the duo find themselves in the midst of a mystery. A man known only as Mr. Brown is seeking a top-secret document that could destroy Great Britain, a document last held by a young girl who survived the sinking of the Lusitania. It is up to Tommy and Tuppence to recover the document and discover the identity of Mr. Brown. The Secret Adversary will keep you guessing to the end, and after you think you've solved the mystery, Agatha Christie plays her trump card and you will find your theories incorrect. If you like books by P.G. Wodehouse or the Lord Peter Whimsey series, you will enjoy Tommy and Tuppence's dialogue. If you love spy stories, you will enjoy the plot of this book. I highly recommend The Secret Adversary to anyone who loves Agatha Christie and to anyone who loves adventure.
Rating:
Summary: Agatha Christie fools us again!
Review: The Secret Adversary introduces Tommy and Tuppence Beresford to the world. Young and rather foolish, Tommy and Tuppence offer themselves as paid adventurers to the general public. "No unreasonable offer refused," their ad claims. When someone actually takes Tuppence up on the advertisement, the duo find themselves in the midst of a mystery. A man known only as Mr. Brown is seeking a top-secret document that could destroy Great Britain, a document last held by a young girl who survived the sinking of the Lusitania. It is up to Tommy and Tuppence to recover the document and discover the identity of Mr. Brown. The Secret Adversary will keep you guessing to the end, and after you think you've solved the mystery, Agatha Christie plays her trump card and you will find your theories incorrect. If you like books by P.G. Wodehouse or the Lord Peter Whimsey series, you will enjoy Tommy and Tuppence's dialogue. If you love spy stories, you will enjoy the plot of this book. I highly recommend The Secret Adversary to anyone who loves Agatha Christie and to anyone who loves adventure.
|
