Book Club

Tommy and Tuppence Stories

Tommy and Tuppence provide a change of pace for Christie readers with their energetic exploits.  Discuss in detail their stories with others in the know - but beware spoilers. 

The best comments will be added to the Stories pages.

If you can't find your favourite Young Adventurers story, don't worry - they'll all be added soon.

Warning: These discussions may contain spoilers!

The Secret Adversary

Jemma 05 Sep 09 at 11:32 a.m. GMT

Christie's second novel introduces the characters of Tommy and Tuppence. Their youthful exuberance, a marked contrast to Poirot and to the later character of Miss Marple. What impact does this have on the reader and does it make the novel more thrilling? It would certainly seem a departure from her first crime novel.

Did Christie recognise that she should be wary of alienating sections of her potential readership? The mix of a political rogues gallery against her heroes, to bring down the British establishment - is it too far-fetched and just amusing to the reader?

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20 replies

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betty_barnard 17 Sep 09 at 8:41 a.m. GMT

I don't think this book is far-fetched at all.  If you read it simply as a romp it works very well.  Although Christie did tend to insert her own political thoughts into some of her later stories (Passenger to Frankfurt  and that newly discovered The Capture of Cerberus to name but two) I don't think she was being overly political in this novel.  She seemed to be having such fun with these two characters and Tuppence is obviously the prototype for later heroines like Anne Beddingfeld, Hilary Craven and Victoria Jones.

Read it for what it is and I don't think you'll be disappointed but try and find it a political thriller and it might let you down.

Tommy_A_Jones 27 Sep 09 at 11:35 a.m. GMT

It is more a Caper than a Political Thriller, and like betty barnard so rightly said it is a very good romp, I haven't read the book with Hilary Crane but I agree that Tuppence ws probably a prototype for Ann Beddingfield even though she only wrote one book with her and kept on going with Tuppence, but if that is the case who was Tommy the prototype for? 

Read more about this story: The Secret Adversary

Lone_Wolf 27 Sep 09 at 12:57 p.m. GMT

The simplistic anti-communist slant of the novel is annoying.

Tommy_A_Jones 27 Sep 09 at 2:26 p.m. GMT

I didn't notice that but then maybe I choose not to read between the lines sometimes which people should be entitled to do.

Lone_Wolf 27 Sep 09 at 3:24 p.m. GMT

The simplistic anti-communist slant is not between the lines, it's plainly in the lines themselves.

I don't like USSR much, and I don't mind communists as villains, but I want them to be more complex then "I has a Russian/German sounding name and I is eeevil! LOL!". Heck, the villains from my favourite AC's "spy book"  - They Came To Baghdad - are more complex them that!

go_leafs_nation 27 Sep 09 at 6:41 p.m. GMT

I somewhat disagree. The main villain in The Secret Adversary is far more intriguing than the villain in They Came to Baghdad, who might be slightly more complex, but it is a predictable, and rather stale, complexity.

AC was just never good at spy thrillers. Her best one is N or M?, I'd say. Her "realm" lay in country-house murders, just like the locked-room murder is the realm of John Dickson Carr, and suspense is the realm of Hitchcock.

Lone_Wolf 28 Sep 09 at 2:53 p.m. GMT

At any rate, secret he is not - halfway through the book it's obvious that only two people can be the "secret adversary".

I'm talking not about the villains themselves, but rather about their goals (I don't think that the villain in "Baghdad" is more complex then the one in "Adversary" per se). In "Baghdad", the author even asknowledges something constructive in the villanous organization's goals, which leads to a profound sentention about the value of individual lives and "small things that matter". (Dame Agatha is the master of sententions like that).

aznm 30 Oct 09 at 2:04 a.m. GMT

I enjoyed The Secret Adversary.  While it's not an award calliber novel, it certainly was a fine effort by a new novelist.  Sure it has some problems, but overall, I found it interesting and enjoyable.  Tommy and Tuppence, especially the adventurous Tuppence, were very likable.  It made me want to read more about them.  Since the Germans and the Russians were the enemies of England during/after The Great War, it's only natural A.C. included them in the way she did.

Definitely liked The Secret Adversary more than Partners In Crime.

In reading this book, as well as with more of A.C.'s book, I guessed "who done it" long before I got near the end.  Sigh.

aznm 30 Oct 09 at 2:07 a.m. GMT

I also wish A.C. had included the adventuresome Ann Beddingfield in more than one novel.  It was great fun following her sleuthing.

Puffinjill 30 Oct 09 at 7:57 a.m. GMT

I quite agree, aznm! I've just been rereading some of AC's earlier works and that youthful innocence and spirit of adventure that shines out from many of these books is intoxicating and such, such fun! It draws me in every time. And more Ann Beddingfeld would have been great!

aquaflute 31 Jan 10 at 10:43 p.m. GMT

I have always loved this book because it's filled with youthful energy and passion! Plus Tommy and Tuppens are my all time favorite detectives or adventurers!

Anita_Clue 03 Feb 10 at 6:56 p.m. GMT

I'm in the process of reading the book, though I have seen the DVD many times with Francesca Annis and James Warwick.  With a few exceptions, the movie follows the book pretty well.

Lone_Wolf 15 Mar 10 at 5:06 p.m. GMT

"Since the Germans and the Russians were the enemies of England during/after The Great War, it's only natural A.C. included them in the way she did."

See, I actually think that you can do a commie villain well, but "Adversary" didn't do it.

Mr_Graves 31 Aug 10 at 10:11 p.m. GMT

I did enjoy "Adversary", and it is very easy to, as long as you don't expect to read a serious spy story. This was rather like "The Big Four" in a way, except far better in its readability and not nearly as absurd. Tommy and Tuppence provided an excellent mold for later young heroes, ie. Bobby Jones and Frankie Derwent; Luke Fitzwilliam and Bridget Conway, etc. It is easy to see why AC liked reusing this idea- she loved young adventurers! And in this book, it's hard not to.

murder_in_candlelight 02 Sep 10 at 5:11 a.m. GMT

I'm starting this book tonight! This will be my first encounter with the Tommy and Tuppence Stories.

Littlegirl 02 Sep 10 at 7:07 p.m. GMT

I am sure that you will enjoy it as much as I did. Good luck!

Mr_Graves 17 Sep 10 at 2:06 a.m. GMT

They are really very charming, and I think I will read their books in order, so I can see how they age. 

bfmlk 22 Jul 11 at 2:19 a.m. GMT

This was my first Tommy and Tuppence novel. I loved it! I am off to the library to get the rest of them. I really enjoyed them.

Another favorite!

bfmlk 06 Nov 11 at 1:03 a.m. GMT

I just  finished  Crooked House. I enjoyed this story.

enessee 04 Feb 12 at 6:44 p.m. GMT

It is certainly a contrast to 'Styles' and proves straight away to Christie's potential audience that she is not just a 'one trick pony'. I think that the political text would have been very relevant to its time. The domestic unrest after World War one, with its socialist revolutionary ideology, and the huge fear this generated among certain classes, may have made this a hair raising book for many readers in a way now hard for us to imagine.