Wow - it's been a little while since I posted to my blog. The last post was, in fact, last month's #ReadChristie2021 wrap-up! Life has been a little crazy recently, so I haven't given as much attention to my books as I would have liked to. However, I did make sure to prioritise my Agatha Christie pick for this month, and did get a chance to read it (yay!).
In January, I read the Official Agatha Christie choice, The Hollow. This month, however, I decided to veer away a little bit, and instead made my own choice!
February began with the prompt: A story featuring love
The main choice was Parker Pyne Investigates. Although I've never read this, I much prefer Christie's novels to her short story collections, so I decided to choose The Secret Adversary. As much as I love Christie's books, I've never read any Tommy and Tuppence, so I figured was a great place to start! I've heard some good things about stories featuring them, so I was hoping I would love them too.
As I didn't go with the official choice, there aren't any direct questions to answer during this post. However, I still wanted to take the time to write down my thoughts on The Secret Adversary.
You can find out more about #Read Christie2021 on the Official Agatha Christie website.
Tommy and Tuppence
As you might know already, Hercule Poirot is my ultimate fictional detective, and I wasn't sure how Tommy and Tuppence would live up to him. My only interaction with them before was the television adaptation starring David Walliams, and I have to say I wasn't entirely convinced!
However, I was actually pleasantly surprised! I found them far more endearing and engaging than I was expecting to, and I liked learning about their backgrounds. These characters are far less eclectic than Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, that's for sure! They were surprisingly normal, and I found it easy to connect with them - especially Tuppence! I'd definitely be happy to read more about them in the future.
The Plot
Unfortunately, the plot didn't impress me anywhere near as much. I really love Christie's murder mysteries, because they're cosy, compact and neat, but at the same time wonderfully surprising and unexpected. What I have far less appreciation for is her ventures into thrillers. I really didn't enjoy The Big Four, where Poirot is running around like a lunatic with Captain Hastings, and unfortunately I had very similar vibes from this one.
It just felt very chaotic and unstructured, and like it wasn't ever really going anywhere. That's what happens when you throw a million ideas and the kitchen sink at a story. It's a real shame, because I was really hoping to enjoy it, but I found it very tiresome. By about halfway through, I just wanted to be done and put it a way.
Supporting Characters
I'd love to have a quick discussion about the supporting characters in the novel, but I'm genuinely not sure I can really remember them. There were plenty, but I can't recall any interesting details about any of them. I feel bad being so blunt, but they just didn't have much of an impact on me.
The Theme of Love
When choosing my book for February, I thought Tommy and Tuppence would be perfect to meet the prompt of a story featuring love. And they were! I loved their interactions, and they were both very sweet characters.
However, I would have really loved to have seen more of these interactions throughout the story! They were kept apart for a lot of the plot, so that did hinder their romance slightly, but it was such a shame. I did appreciate that their distance made their fondness for each other grow stronger, but I feel like there could have been some more cute conversations and endearing moments for us to read about. I'm hoping there will be more of that in the rest of the stories featuring them!
Overall Rating
Rating: ✫✫
It really destroys me to say it, but I really did not enjoy this Agatha Christie novel. It really did feel like one of her earlier stories, because it was a little bit all over the place - not at all like the super cohesive mysteries that we often associate with her.
Sadly, it didn't live up to my expectations at all. I'm hoping my March choice will be better.
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