The Secret Adversary: Agatha Christie's First Tommy and Tuppence Mystery (Timeless Classic Books)

The Secret Adversary is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK in 1922. The book introduces the characters of Tommy and Tuppence who are featured in three other Christie books and one collection of short stories written throughout her writing career.The New York Times Book Review of June 11, 1922 was also impressed, stating, "It is safe to assert that unless the reader peers into the last chapter or so of the tale, he will not know who this secret adversary is until the author chooses to reveal him." The review gave something of a backhanded compliment when it said that Christie "gives a sense of plausibility to the most preposterous situations and developments." Nevertheless they conceded that, "Miss Christie has a clever prattling style that shifts easily into amusing dialogue and so aids the pleasure of the reader as he tears along with Tommy and Tuppence on the trail of the mysterious Mr. Brown. Many of the situations are a bit moth-eaten from frequent usage by other writers, but at that Miss Christie manages to invest them with a new sense of individuality that renders them rather absorbing."