Agatha Christie Rereads

I’ve been on a reread marathon this weekend – specifically Dame Christie’s early novels. I find that I never get tired of Agatha Christie’s books. Never mind that I know how everything goes, I can read them multiple times. Maybe that’s because they are very short and to the point.

This weekend, I was bone-tired after hosting my daughter’s 13th birthday party and I didn’t have the energy for IQ84, which was my planned read. Instead I picked up The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Secret Adversary from my bookshelf. Both these books were ideal as I didn’t quite remember the complete plot.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

This is the first Hercule Poirot mystery Christie penned. This is the book that kickstarted the classic closed door mystery. There is a domestic murder, a limited range of suspects, a romance or two, and some class issues woven in (sometimes in an outdated sort of way).

What’s the book about?

It’s post World War 1 Britain and the world’s changing. Hercule Poirot (a retired detective from Belgium) is living a quiet life in Styles St. Mary. He’s looked upon with a certain amount of suspicion and distrust (these odd foreigners!).

Captain Hastings comes to stay with friends in this village. When his hostess is suddenly murdered, he turns to his friend Poirot to investigate and save his friend from the scandal of a murder in his house.

My Review

This is Christie’s first Poirot story and also her first novel, and it shows. She is still feeling her way through the character and the set ups.

That said for a first book, she absolutely nailed the mystery. When Poirot delivers the aha moment at the end of the novel, I was kicking myself why didn’t I get it earlier? All the clues were laid out for me so clearly. But that’s Christie’s brilliance. Her sleight of hand techniques hiding the genuine clues among the red herrings are on-point in this very first book of hers.

Overall, this is not the very best Poirot mystery but it’s a must-read as part of the Poirot series.

The Secret Adversary

Christie is most famous for her Poirot and Miss Marple books, but also wrote other series and standalone novels. Another of her famous detectives are Tommy and Tuppence. The Secret Adversary is the first book in the Tommy-Tuppence series.

About the Book

Tommy and Tuppence are two down and out friends struggling to scratch a living after the war. They decide rather playfully to set up as adventurers, only to find themselves in hot water. Soon, they get mixed up with Communists, secret service agents, the Irish Sein Fenn and everything else that was au courant at that time.

My Review

The Tommy and Tuppence books are generally more playful, it’s Christie being light-hearted and I guess appealing to a younger readership.

This book is also pretty unbelievable in terms of the premise – let’s hire these two young people with ZERO experience to save the government from falling into the hands of evil men.

Still, in spite of it being so out there, I quite liked the book. It’s fun and adventurous, and the tone is just right. I am not a big fan of the later Tommy and Tuppence books, but this introduction to the pair is enormously entertaining.

Overall, highly recommend both these books. If you are an Agatha Christie fan, both these books are must-reads.

Both these books have newly been reprinted by Srishti Publishers & Distributors. The reprints are quality books, and I was happy to get a review copy from the publishers in exchange for a honest review.