The Secret Adversary is Agatha Christie’s second novel, and the first to feature Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. When we meet them Tommy is an unemployed ex-lieutenant, having served in the First World War. Tuppence is also unemployed and is desperate not to have to live at home. Having little money and few options for making any, they decide to form The Young Adventurers – ‘no unreasonable offer refused’. Their adventures begin when a man approaches Tuppence, asking her to meet him to discuss a job. When he later asks her name she replies “Jane Finn”, a name Tommy had mentioned overhearing. The man reacts strangely, assuming that she is trying to blackmail him. Tommy and Tuppence learn that Jane Finn is believed to have, or know the location of, documents that could be embarrassing to the British government. They end up working for British intelligence in an unofficial capacity. The Secret Adversary of the title is a man who British intelligence believe is trying to undermine the government, not just of Britain, but of several other countries as well.
Tommy and Tuppence handle the case with enthusiasm and not much skill and certainly not much caution. Their approach owes a lot to the films the characters might have seen and, not surprisingly, they make mistakes. Having said all that, the characters and their actions are believable if you take into account the comparative innocence of the time.
