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gocubs1908 's review for:
The Secret Adversary
by Agatha Christie
This book is maddening.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when a smart character does something stupid for no good reason other than that the author needs them to in order for the plot they've laid out to make sense. The main point of The Secret Adversary is that Tommy and Tuppence don't know who the villainous "Mr. Brown" is. Less than halfway through the book a character literally points to Mr. Brown and then passes out. From context neither we nor Tuppence know which of two men it is, BUT SHE LITERALLY POINTS TO HIM. Somehow this goes over Tuppence's head in spite of the fact, that to this point, she has been the smartest one in the room. Then on the next page, when the character again tells her that Mr. Brown is in the room with them, rather than suspecting the two gentlemen she is with, she gets up and looks in the wardrobe. Tuppence is not that dumb. You (yes I mean you Agatha Christie) have gone to great lengths to show us she's not that dumb, but suddenly you need her to be for some reason.
For no good reason at that. A far better choice would have been for Tuppence to see it too and have to continue working with both men knowing one of them is Mr. Brown but not knowing which. Instead, the rest of the book is (to use a term from the world of improv theater) bridging. You know something has to happen (Tuppence has to realize one of them is Mr. Brown) and you're just killing time until it does. It's maddening and boring. Fortunately there's no reason for Tommy to know one of them is Mr. Brown, so his sections of the book kept me interested.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when a smart character does something stupid for no good reason other than that the author needs them to in order for the plot they've laid out to make sense. The main point of The Secret Adversary is that Tommy and Tuppence don't know who the villainous "Mr. Brown" is. Less than halfway through the book a character literally points to Mr. Brown and then passes out. From context neither we nor Tuppence know which of two men it is, BUT SHE LITERALLY POINTS TO HIM. Somehow this goes over Tuppence's head in spite of the fact, that to this point, she has been the smartest one in the room. Then on the next page, when the character again tells her that Mr. Brown is in the room with them, rather than suspecting the two gentlemen she is with, she gets up and looks in the wardrobe.
For no good reason at that. A far better choice would have been for Tuppence to see it too and have to continue working with both men knowing one of them is Mr. Brown but not knowing which. Instead, the rest of the book is (to use a term from the world of improv theater) bridging. You know something has to happen (Tuppence has to realize one of them is Mr. Brown) and you're just killing time until it does. It's maddening and boring. Fortunately there's no reason for Tommy to know one of them is Mr. Brown, so his sections of the book kept me interested.