If you’ve never read Christie, definitely don’t start here. I figured out half of the solution, which with Christie is about as good as it gets. Bring in their old retainer, Albert, and the book comes to a solid and entertaining conclusion. Things do pick up, though, when Betty is kidnapped, and then Tommy goes missing and Tuppence must figure out the identity of the spies with the help of one of Deborah’s friends, Anthony Marsdon, who is a young code breaker. Occasionally, things get a bit twee with the pair, and there is an annoyingly adorable plot moppet named Betty who accidentally reveals a secret while she is babbling on with Tuppence.Ĭhristie’s espionage stories are never as good as her straight up mysteries, and this one dragged for about the first 30%. Even after all these years, they still like each other alot, and it shows in their interactions. They still have their signature witty banter, and their relationship is good fun. One of the best things about Tommy and Tuppence is Tommy and Tuppence. When he arrives there, Tuppence is sitting in the common room knitting a balaclava. He sneaks off to Sans Souci, a seaside boarding house where intelligence suggests the spies are operative. When a man approaches Tommy to take on a job rooting out a pair of German spies (code names N and M) without Tuppence, Tuppence is having none of it. Their children, in the inimitable manner of young people, have cheerfully decided that mum and dad should shuffle off and spend the war years in a decline somewhere – the kids have got this war covered. They can’t find anyone to give them an opportunity to serve Britain in the war, and they are a bit down in the mouth about it: the secret service doesn’t want Tommy, and Tuppence has been turned down for a nursing slot. N or M? was published in 1941, in the midst of WWII, and, at the beginning of the book, Tommy and Tuppence are feeling their age. In N or M?, many years have passed, and the twins, Deborah and Derek, are both young adults. When we left Tommy and Tuppence, at the end of Partners in Crime, Tuppence had just announced to Tommy that she was pregnant (after ridding the world of an espionage ring). This is the third in the series, following The Secret Adversary and Partners in Crime. When I started figuring out which titles I had left, I realized that I had almost all of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. I’ve finished Superintendent Battle and Colonel Race, and most of Marple (although I am saving Sleeping Murder for the end, because I’ve heard that it doesn’t suck). I long ago read And Then There Were None, along with all of the rest of the Poirot mysteries. This is the year that I will finish reading Agatha Christie, and what that means is that I have just a few left, and the ones that are left are not her best work.

Tommy and tuppence n or m