Written by Agatha Christie
SUMMARY:
First published in 1929, it’s the sequel to Tommy & Tuppence’s first caper: 1922’s The Secret Adversary. This 217-page reprint was released by Signet Books in 2000. Presented as an episodic series of short stories, the happily married yet restless Beresfords are recruited by British intelligence to serve as undercover operators of London’s International Detective Agency.
On this adventurous new front, they must act as lookouts for a shadowy foreign conspirator seeking to contact them. Masquerading as dashing private eye ‘Theodore Blunt’ and his assistant, ‘Miss Robinson,’ the light-hearted Tommy & Tuppence Beresford occasionally seek inspiration from classic detective fiction. Maturing into capable sleuths, the Beresfords find several surprises await them.
Their twenty-three tales are:
- A Fairy in the Flat;
- A Pot of Tea;
- The Affair of the Pink Pearl (two-parter);
- The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger (two-parter);
- Finessing the King & The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper (two-parter);
- The Case of the Missing Lady;
- Blindman’s Buff;
- The Man in the Mist (two-parter);
- The Crackler (two-parter);
- The Sunningdale Mystery (two-parter);
- The House of Lurking Death (two-parter);
- The Unbreakable Alibi;
- The Clergyman’s Daughter;
- The Red House;
- The Ambassador’s Boots; and
- The Man Who Was No. 16.
REVIEW:
Long predating Remington Steele and Moonlighting (not to mention, The Thin Man), helping popularize the witty amateur detective genre is another achievement that Agatha Christie should be credited with. Deftly mixing decent mysteries with spoofy, self-deprecating humor, Christie clearly has a grand time revisiting the fun-loving Tommy & Tuppence. In that sense, Partners in Crime is comparable to Christie’s semi-spoofy The Seven Dials Mystery — perhaps it isn’t a coincidence that both novels were sequels released in 1929.
Though this book’s internal continuity is solid, Christie does (seemingly at random) tweak her hapless leads for a plot’s convenience. There are such instances where a somewhat dense Tommy comes off as remarkably savvy tackling crooks and spies, so one wonders if he prefers playing dumb, if only for humor’s sake.
Likewise, Tuppence’s mock housewife-like subservience is a pretense to her knack for impulsively connecting all the necessary dots before Tommy does. Hence, Christie ensures that the Beresfords’ blissful marriage and professional partnership is competitive and very much on equal footing. Their semi-rivalry is very much part of the fun.
Compared to other Christie franchises, these Tommy & Tuppence mini-mysteries aren’t all that remarkable. Still, a few (i.e. The House of Lurking Death and The Sunningdale Mystery) stand out for creativity. What makes this book a classic, of course, is the Beresfords’ brand of humor (including their overly-enthusiastic aide, Albert).
Considering this book is nearly a century old, the reality that Tommy & Tuppence’s witty repartee remains fresh spells out why this vital element became a genre cliché. For a droll and undemanding read, Partners in Crime delivers the goods.
Note: Christie’s remaining Tommy & Tuppence novels (N or M?; By the Pricking of My Thumbs; and Postern of Fate) age the Beresfords in real time. Their increasingly realistic, middle-aged narratives drops the tongue-in-cheek charm of Partners in Crime.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES:
None.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 8 Stars
