The Secret Adversary

In 1920 London, demobilised soldier Tommy Beresford reunites with his childhood friend and war volunteer Prudence "Tuppence" Cowley. Out of work and money, they form "The Young Adventurers, Ltd". Their first client, a Mr Whittington, makes Tuppence a suspiciously generous offer. Remembering a seemingly unrelated anecdote of Tommy’s, when Whittington asks Tuppence her name, she gives him the alias "Jane Finn." A shocked Whittington offers her £50 hush money and disappears. Carter, an old friend of Tommy's from British intelligence, tells them that Jane Finn was a British agent who disappeared while attempting to deliver a secret treaty to the American embassy in London. Tommy and Tuppence agree to find her, but Carter warns them about an enemy agent known only as "Mr Brown." Also searching for Jane Finn is her cousin Julius Hersheimmer, an American multimillionaire.

Tommy and Tuppence's investigation leads them to the home of Mrs Marguerite "Rita" Vandemeyer, a woman with several powerful friends, including Whittington and Sir James Peel Edgerton, K C. Tuppence obtains a job as Mrs Vandemeyer's maid and enlists the help of a young boy working there named Albert. Tuppence hears Mrs Vandemeyer mention Mr Brown and forces her to admit she knows his real identity. Mrs Vandemeyer screams, collapses, and murmurs "Mr Brown" to Tuppence just before dying. Tuppence receives a telegram signed by Tommy and rushes after him.

Meanwhile, Tommy follows Boris Ivanovitch, another of Rita's associates, to a house in Soho, where Tommy is taken prisoner while attempting to eavesdrop on a meeting of Bolshevist conspirators. A young French woman at the house, Annette, arranges his escape, but refuses to leave herself. Tommy returns to the Ritz and finds Tuppence.

Sir James discovers Jane Finn, who has recovered her memory after an accident. She tells them where she hid the treaty, but they find instead a message from Mr Brown. While searching for writing paper in Julius's drawer, Tommy finds a photograph of Annette. Tommy concludes that Annette is the real Jane Finn and the Jane Finn they met was a plant to stop their investigation. He gets an original copy of the telegram sent to Tuppence and sees that her destination was altered on the copy he read. Tommy and Albert proceed to the correct destination.

Hersheimmer arranges for the release of Tuppence and Annette. At Sir James's residence, Jane tells her story: after receiving the packet, she became suspicious of Mrs Vandemeyer. Jane placed blank sheets in the original packet, sealing the treaty inside magazine pages. Travelling from Ireland, she was mugged and taken to the house in Soho. Perceiving the intent of her captors, Jane faked amnesia, conversing only in French. She hid the treaty in a picture frame in her room and has maintained her role as "Annette" ever since. Tuppence suspects that Hersheimmer is Mr Brown. Sir James agrees, adding that the real Hersheimmer was killed in America and that his imposter killed Mrs Vandemeyer. They rush to Soho, recovering the treaty at the house. Sir James identifies himself as the true Mr Brown, and announces his plan to kill them, wound himself, and then blame it on the elusive Mr Brown. Julius and Tommy, who are hiding in the room, overwhelm Sir James. He commits suicide using poison concealed in his ring, the compelling evidence to persuade Mr Carter of his old friend's guilt.

Tommy’s role in solving the mystery persuades his estranged rich uncle to support him financially and make Tommy his heir. The novel ends with both Hersheimmer and Jane, and Tommy and Tuppence, engaged to marry.

• Thomas Beresford: Tommy, young redheaded Englishman who fought in the Great War, wounded twice, considered slow but steady and clear-headed in his thinking, at his best in a tight situation. In his early twenties.
• Prudence L Cowley: Tuppence, young woman with black bobbed hair, one of several children of a conservative archdeacon, served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) during the Great War. She is modern and stylish, quick and intuitive in her thinking, acts rapidly on her ideas. In her early twenties.
• Julius P Hersheimmer: Millionaire from America, seeking his first cousin Jane Finn, a girl he never met in America due to a family quarrel. He is quick-thinking, quick-acting, and being from America, he carries a gun and knows how to use it. In his early thirties.
• Mr Carter: Englishman skilled in the intelligence service and connected with the highest political powers, known only by this alias. He seeks the treaty and the girl who might have carried it off the ship.
• Jane Finn: American woman, 18 years old when she left the US, with good skills in speaking French, who aimed to work in a war hospital during the Great War. She sailed on the Lusitania, and she survived, carrying a document from a man named Danvers.
• Marguerite Vandemeyer: Rita, a beautiful woman in society who followed Danvers on the Lusitania. She is affiliated with the conspirators and uniquely knows "Mr Brown"'s true identity. Her character is steely and powerful and she sees Sir James socially. She dies by poison.
• Albert: Lift boy at the building in which Rita Vandemeyer lives, becomes helper to Tuppence, then to Tommy.
• Mr Whittington: Member of the conspirators who first encounters Tommy and Tuppence as they plan their joint venture over lunch in a restaurant. He spoke Jane Finn's name in the streets as Tommy passed him.
• Boris Ivanovitch, Count Stepanov: Member of the conspiracy, who keeps in touch with Whittington and Rita.
• Mr Kramenin: Russian Bolshevik, serving in London, and one of the conspirators, called number one. Julius selects him to lead him to the girls.
• Dr Hall: Runs the nursing home in Bournemouth where he took in the amnesia patient as a niece of Rita Vandemeyer, under the name Janet, for several years.
• Sir James Peel Edgerton: MP and prominent London defence lawyer, known to instinctively identify a criminal. He is socially and politically well known, and seen as a potential future prime minister. Mr Carter respects his intelligence, going back years. He sees Rita socially. He is known for his persuasive ways.
• Mr Brown: Elusive leader of the conspirators, who appears as a man named Brown often, but in a minor role, so others do not recall his appearance. He is key to all decisions of the conspirators, subtle with information, brutal or fatal with his enemies, the master criminal mind of the age.

Upon publication of the first book edition it was reviewed by The Times Literary Supplement in its edition of 26 January 1922, which described it as "a whirl of thrilling adventures". It stated that the characters of Tommy and Tuppence were "refreshingly original" and praised the fact that the "identity of the arch-criminal, the elusive "Mr Brown", is cleverly concealed to the very end".[4]

The critic for The New York Times Book Review (11 June 1922) was also impressed: "It is safe to assert that unless the reader peers into the last chapter or so of the tale, he will not know who this secret adversary is until the author chooses to reveal him." The review gave something of a backhanded compliment when it said that Christie "gives a sense of plausibility to the most preposterous situations and developments." Nevertheless it conceded that

Miss Christie has a clever prattling style that shifts easily into amusing dialogue and so aids the pleasure of the reader as he tears along with Tommy and Tuppence on the trail of the mysterious Mr Brown. Many of the situations are a bit moth-eaten from frequent usage by other writers, but at that Miss Christie manages to invest them with a new sense of individuality that renders them rather absorbing.[5]

Robert Barnard described the novel as "The first and best (no extravagant compliment this) of the Tommy and Tuppence stories. It tells how the dauntless pair foils a plot to foment labour unrest and red revolution in Britain, masterminded by the man behind the Bolshevists. Good reactionary fun, if you're in that mood."[6]

Some additional blurbs regarding the book, and used by The Bodley Head for advertising subsequent print runs, are as follows:

• "It's an excellent yarn and the reader will find it as impossible as we did to put it aside until the mystery has been fathomed." — Daily Chronicle[7]

• "We promise our readers an exciting story of adventure, full of hairbreadth escapes, and many disappointments if they try to guess the riddle before the author is ready to give them the clue. — An excellent story." — Saturday Review.[7]

• "The atmosphere of the book is admirable and the story will be read with avidity by all. Undoubtedly the book is a success." — East Anglian Daily Times.[7]

• "A book of thrilling adventure. Sensational adventures which make thrilling and gripping reading. Mrs Christie has certainly succeeded in writing a story not only entertaining, but ingenious and amazingly clever." — Irish Independent.[7]

The one critic who was not so keen on the book was Christie's publisher, John Lane, who had wanted her to write another detective novel along the lines of The Mysterious Affair at Styles.[8]

• 1922, John Lane (The Bodley Head), January 1922, Hardback, 320 pp
• 1922, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), 1922, Hardback, 330 pp
• 1927, John Lane (The Bodley Head), February 1927, Hardback (Cheap Edition – two shillings)
• 1946, Avon Books (New York), Avon number 100, Paperback, 264 pp
• 1955, Pan Books, Paperback (Pan number 357)
• 1957, Pan Books, Paperback (Great Pan GP82)
• 1967, Bantam Books (New York), Paperback
• 1976, Panther Books (London), Paperback; ISBN 0-586-04424-8
• 1991, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 256pp; ISBN 0-00-617478-7
• 1991, Ulverscroft Large Print Edition, Hardcover; ISBN 0-7089-2441-7
• 2001, Signet (Penguin Group), Paperback
• 2007, Facsimile of 1922 UK first edition (HarperCollins), 5 November 2007, Hardcover, 320 pp; ISBN 0-00-726515-8

Like its predecessor, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, The Secret Adversary was first published as an unillustrated serialisation in The Times weekly edition (aka The Weekly Times) as a complete and unabridged text in seventeen instalments from 12 August (Issue 2328) to 2 December 1921 (Issue 2343).[14] Christie was paid £50 for the serialisation rights (£1,545 in 2003 currency).[8][15]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Secret Adversary

The Secret Adversary is in the public domain in the US. The copyright on the book will not expire in many other Western countries until 2047.

• The Secret Adversary at Standard Ebooks
• The Secret Adversary at Project Gutenberg
• The Secret Adversary at the official Agatha Christie website
• Die Abenteurer GmbH (1929) at IMDb
• Die Abenteurer GmbH (1929) entry at British Film Institute
• The Secret Adversary (1983) at IMDb
• The Secret Adversary (1983) article at Screenonline