Agatha Christie

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford look forward to a peaceful retirement in their new rambling old house until they find someone left a coded message in an old book.

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Sarah Sammis

It was one of my first Agatha Christie's and remains one of my favorites.

Postern of Fate (Tommy & Tuppence Chronology)

Sandrin

Samiha Tasnim

I know things. People don’t know as I know things. They don’t think I’ve listened and they don’t think I’d remember, but I know sometimes–you know, they’ll say something and then they’ll say who else knows about it and then they’ll–well, you know, if you keep quiet you get to hear a lot.




It’s a kind of technique, you know. We’ve taught it to ourselves in the last, oh, say fifty to a hundred years. Taught that if people cohere together and make a tight little mob of themselves, it’s amazing what they are able to accomplish and what they are able to inspire other people to accomplish for them.

Bill Wallis

A Tommy and Tuppence Mystery (Mystery Masters Series)

Rose Stanley

'All those clues,' said Andrew. 'You could make a story out of them - even a book - '
'Too many names, too complicated,' said Deborah. 'Who'd read a book like that?'
'You'd be surprised,' said Tommy, 'what people will read - and enjoy!'

I understand this was the last novel Christie wrote (in her 80s! Respect) and that she may have been suffering from Alzheimer's at the time. Not sure whether it's this or the fact that Tommy and Tuppence are also supposed to be getting on a bit by this point that resulted in a lot of repetition and narrative threads that just seemed to trail off. I did almost shout at Tuppence for not getting the Oxbridge reference sooner during my first reading of this. 

Anyway, this story improved for me on a second reading - the ending is rather annoyingly vague but this does make sense, given Tommy and Tuppence are investigating a cold case from several decades ago involving politically sensitive information (also it allows Christie to cast aspersions on politicians without naming names, sneaky). 

Was glad to see time had not diminished this couple's capacity for affectionate bickering (this series being as much about the joy of a relationship between intellectual equals who appreciate and admire each other as it is about espionage and or whoduniting). There are also plenty of potential book recommendations in the first few pages alone, and I thought Hannibal was great.

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