52 in 25: #1 - The Secret Adversary

 A brief introduction to this series: “52 in ’25.”  For awhile now I have been saying that I need to read more, but I always find excuses to do other things.  I have shelves of books that I have not read.  Sometime in December I decided that I needed to challenge myself, that was the only way to actually do it.  While I love movies, I know that books are more engaging, more enlightening, just all-around better.  Without having a good gauge as to how many books I actually read a year (I usually have 3-4 going on various topics at the same time), I wanted to give myself a reasonable (?) goal.  So, I cut it from 100 to one a week – 52.  Then, of course, I realized that it works with the year.  So, “52 in ’25” it is.  I feel like I can do this.  I’m sure some weeks will be more difficult, and some weeks (like retreat week) will be more productive.  So rather than a strict “1 per week,” it is a cumulative 52 over the year.  One extra caveat, I didn’t want it to be me just re-reading things I have already consumed, so I am giving myself a limit of 5 books over the year that I have already read.  I think that’s fair, and it allows me to inevitably pick up Jurassic Park again, as I do every year.

 

So, as an additional challenge to keep myself honest, I lately decided I am going to do a brief review of each book.  Nothing groundbreaking, just a few notes on it and my impressions.  Again, this is more or less to publicly keep me going.

 

I wasn’t sure where I wanted to start, but eventually I landed on The Secret Adversary.  A few years ago, I started to read Agatha Christie, and she has quickly become one of my favorite authors.  I have read a good chunk of her Hercule Poirot books, so I wanted to dip my feet into a new set from her.

 

The Secret Adversary was published in 1922.  I was surprised to see that it was Christie’s second novel, after only Poirot’s debut in The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1921.  This novel marks the first appearance of Tommy and Tuppence, who are obviously not as well known as Poirot or Miss Marple in the Christie bibliography.  It revolves around the unknown “secret adversary” of Mr. Brown, who leads an organization of Marxists who are trying to find a proposed secret treaty from the First World War which would cause chaos and overthrow the British government.  Tommy and Tuppence have decided they want to start an adventure, and end up in the middle of this intrigue.  As always with Christie, it’s a true page-turner.  Once you get into it, it’s hard to put down because you want to know what’s coming next.  I will say, without giving anything away, I feel into her trap of thinking I knew who Mr. Brown was.  It was a good surprise twist in the end.  I also quite liked Tommy and Tuppence.  They are a little more easy to relate to, especially in comparison to the sometimes egotistical, almost unbearable Poirot.  Overall, I would put it pretty high up on my list of favorite Christie novels.  I would definitely recommend it, though not as a first Christie novel (that would be probably And Then There Were None or one of a handful of Poirot stories).  In fact, I liked it so much that, while I was planning on reading something else, I will be continuing with their second novel.

 

I will add that I have watched about half of the BBC production from the early 80s (I started it as I was reading and stopped before spoiling anything).  It’s pretty good, pretty faithful to the book, but I really don’t like the casting choice for Tommy and Tuppence.  They are supposed to be in their 20s, full of life, but the actors are in the mid-30s and somewhat dull.