The Secret Adversary

About This Book

First published in 1922, The Secret Adversary is the second novel by Agatha Christie (1890–1976) and the first to feature the husband-and-wife detective duo Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. Two young friends, recently demobilized after World War I and broke in London, decide to advertise themselves as willing to do anything for money. Their first client draws them into a conspiracy involving a missing secret treaty, a shadowy figure known only as Mr. Brown, and a young woman named Jane Finn who vanished during the sinking of the Lusitania five years earlier. The Secret Adversary is a brisk, witty thriller — lighter in tone than Christie's Poirot novels — and established Tommy and Tuppence as recurring characters across five decades of Christie's career. The novel is in the public domain in multiple jurisdictions.

Excerpt

'Tommy, old thing!' 'Tuppence, old bean!' The two young people greeted each other affectionately, and momentarily blocked the Dover Street Tube exit in doing so.— Opening of The Secret Adversary

What Critics Say

A whirl of thrilling adventures... the identity of the arch-criminal is cleverly concealed to the very end.— The Times Literary Supplement, 1922

Miss Christie has a clever prattling style that shifts easily into amusing dialogue.— The New York Times Book Review, 1922

Publication Details