Agatha Christie's
The Man in the Brown Suit is a very curious book. It's not a mystery that will tickle your brain cells, rather it conveniently masks the suspense with a cloak of adventure, humour and romance so effortlessly that by the time you finish reading the book you begin to wonder whether there was any mystery in the first place!
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The Man in the
Brown Suit |
Beautiful, young, independent and yearning to see the world, Anne Beddingfield comes to London looking for adventure to put an end to her drab life. Tables turn in her favour when she accidentally becomes witness to the death of a man at a tube station. Ruled as an accidental death by the police, the incident continues to haunt her especially after she manages to get hold of a cryptic message that the doctor or
the man in the brown suit, who pronounced him dead on the scene, accidentally drops before vamoosing from the platform. Determined to find out his identity, Anne embarks in pursuit of the man.
As the first novel in which Colonel Race makes his appearance,
TMitBS is like a little hodge-podge of robberies, murders and secret agents all mashed into one silly, yet enjoyable, ride. While it's hard to shake off the coincidences Christie resorts to tie up all the loose ends, her astuteness guarantees enough surprising moments in the story. It also doesn't help that the protagonist comes off as uninteresting despite projected otherwise. Sir Eustace Pedler and his personal secretary Pagett, in contrast, are beautifully etched and their humorous badinage provides the necessary comic relief.
TMitBS is superbly manipulative and a fun read while it lasts.
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