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A review by shanaqui
The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Agatha Christie's The Secret Adversary has aged fairly badly in a number of ways, with her right-wing politics on display and various classic stereotypes. It's the first Tommy and Tuppence book, and it was interesting to read it in light of the biography of her I read recently: written during her first marriage, Tommy and Tuppence have elements of Agatha and Archie.
The more of Christie's work I read, though, the less I seem to like it... The plotting just isn't as good as people would lead you to believe. Could I do better? Probably not, but I can point to a number of writers who could. It's entertaining, and I can understand people who get attached to her characters, but it leaves me cold. Once she's tricked you once, it's easy to see through her other misdirections; even if you don't quite know where things are going to land, you can at least say "nah, that's just a red herring".
So overall, it was alright, but I think I'll wrap up my reading of Christie's work once I get to the end of the ones available in Serial Reader, at least for now.
The more of Christie's work I read, though, the less I seem to like it... The plotting just isn't as good as people would lead you to believe. Could I do better? Probably not, but I can point to a number of writers who could. It's entertaining, and I can understand people who get attached to her characters, but it leaves me cold. Once she's tricked you once, it's easy to see through her other misdirections; even if you don't quite know where things are going to land, you can at least say "nah, that's just a red herring".
So overall, it was alright, but I think I'll wrap up my reading of Christie's work once I get to the end of the ones available in Serial Reader, at least for now.