Kavi Reads

This will probably my last Christie review for the month (though it is Halloween month. Hmm… reconsidering that immediately). My last few books have been exclusively her work and I have other books I’d like to read on my list. That being said, it has been very enjoyable so far. It’s been great revisiting my favourite genre, especially with the Queen of it. After a Poirot and a Miss Marple mystery, I picked up a Tommy and Tuppence story, or more accurately, series of short stories, Partners in Crime.

After their success in The Secret Adversary (which I remember reading and really liking two years ago), Tommy and Tuppence Beresford have opened their own detective agency, one that is unique in the way that it never takes divorce cases. Under the name of Theodore Blunt and his “confidential secretary” Miss Robinson. From murder investigations to finding a missing jewel to catching the source of forged notes, the two tackle a series of cases – mimicking in each the style of a famous fictional detective of the period, including Sherlock Holmes and Christie’s own Hercule Poirot.  Something I didn’t know until after finishing the book, each story is based on a famous detective classic, something the two are big fans of. It was actually really interesting to see what sort of methods they use when imitating another detective. Barring occasional mentions of their successes in the previous cases, the cases are pretty independent of each other. But overall, each was quite fun and refreshing to read.

Tommy and Tuppence are unlike any other detective I’ve read about. They don’t have any air of pretentiousness or superiority around them. Unlike the quite famous Holmes or Poirot, they are in their period of struggle. They genuinely enjoy their work. They have their clever moments, but mostly, it is their confidence that leads them to victory. Both have a fairly equal role in the investigations. And every new client was told that Mr Blunt is “currently busy with Scotland Yard”, and “has an appointment with the Duke later”, which I thought was hilarious.

One of my favourite stories was Finessing the King/The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper, the first murder mystery in the book, where a little bit of luck and some clever sleuthing led the pair to the killer. The fact that I missed my stop while on the bus while reading this should say enough about how engrossing this was. There was Blindman’s Buff, where we see Tommy’s preparedness as a detective. And others like The House of Lurking Death and The Sunningdale Mystery were also very gripping. Though, there were some like The Unbreakable Alibi and The Ambassador’s Boots were a bit obvious in the sense that I knew what the solution would be within a few lines.

While we didn’t get to spend a long time on any of the cases, which was good and bad. Good, because it kept things moving and had a slightly more realistic tone than a typical Poirot story. Bad, because if I’m really into a story and I see it going somewhere, a sharp twist can quickly bring it to an end. Most stories are between fifteen and twenty pages, so much shorter than, say, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Therefore, it was hard to get invested in any of the stories. But, it seemed like the intricacies of the plot were of secondary importance and their personalities were the primary product. And in that aspect, the book was perfect.

If nothing else, the book definitely gave me loads of “classic” detective names that I can look into for more fun detective stories.