I decided to read all of Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence novels after learning that they were her favorites of all her sleuths. There are unfortunately only a few of these novels, and The Secret Adversary is the first.
Tommy and Tuppence are old friends who haven’t seen each other for a while when they meet again after World War I. They are both broke and have been looking for work, so they decide to band together to look for jobs, calling themselves Young Adventurers, Inc. On leaving the café where they have been lunching and discussing this plan, Tuppence is approached by a man who overheard them and says he thinks he has a job for them, but when he asks her name, she says, “Jane Finn,” a name she heard mentioned in the café. He reacts indignantly and leaves.
After placing an ad, Tommy and Tuppence are contacted for work and find that the job oddly involves Jane Finn, who was a passenger on the Lusitania when it was sunk five years before and is believed to have been the recipient of a package important to the government. Tommy and Tuppence are hired to find Jane Finn.
The search brings with it many adventures, during which their steps are dogged by a mysterious Mr. Brown, apparently a criminal mastermind. This novel has a silly Cold War plot before the Cold War, and the slang spoken by an American millionaire seems completely unlikely. I think Christie must have watched too many gangster movies. However, Tommy and Tuppence are delightful and resourceful, so this was a fun reading experience.
whatmeread 
I’ve only read the first two Tommy and Tuppence books (this one and Partners in Crime) but I will be reading the others eventually. They are great characters and a change from Poirot and Miss Marple!
Yes, I agree. I have already read N or M but probably won’t review it for a while.
YES! My favorites too. I love how they start out young and then age throughout all the books she wrote with them. I’ve read them all, but I want to re-read them all (which is something I almost never do, by the way), so I’m slowly collecting copies of all the books and short stories. YEAH!
I only wish she had written more of them as they aged. The first few are set directly after World War I and N or M? isn’t until World War II!
Yes… shame, really. But at least we have these.
Yes.
Yes, the plot is definitely silly – most of the T&T plots are, to be honest – but the characters are so much fun it doesn’t really matter. Glad you enjoyed it!
Yes, that’s what I thought.