Nadina, the Russian dancer who had taken Paris by storm, swayed to the sound of the applause
# 96: The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie:"You must have had a very interesting life, Colonel Race?" said Miss Beddingfeld, gazing at him with wide, starry eyes.
That's how they do it, these girls! Othello charmed Desdemona by telling her stories, but, oh, didn't Desdemona charm Othello by the way she listened?
Synopsis: Plucky but penniless, Anne Beddingfeld goes looking for adventure in colonial Africa, and finds a murderer as well.
Some Christies, on re-reading, sadly do not live up to my remembrances of the initial read ( Body in the Library and The Big Four, I am looking at you), and some exceed them. Among the latter I count both The Sittaford Mystery and this book.
It's glorious.
Oh it's just a romp, y'all. A big, happy romp. Anne is fantastically plucky and level-headed (she reminded me quite a bit of Susan, Death's daughter on the Discworld) and gallops headlong into adventure, carrying the reader along. There are smoky-eyed Parisian spies and drafty, over-sized English houses, scraps of mysterious paper, a cruise to South Africa, various trains that are caught and jumped off on their way to Rhodesia, an eccentric married heroine, a fussy old MP and his neverending retinue of secretaries, an oversized wooden giraffe, Victoria Falls, and of course, the man in the brown suit.
That's really all the details I'm going to give you about the plot because it's too awesome to spoil in any way, shape or form. One of the Amazon reviewers referred to the book as Christie's "most romantic novel" and I have to agree. At this point in my re-read of the collection, it's also her best.
That's how they do it, these girls! Othello charmed Desdemona by telling her stories, but, oh, didn't Desdemona charm Othello by the way she listened?
Synopsis: Plucky but penniless, Anne Beddingfeld goes looking for adventure in colonial Africa, and finds a murderer as well.
Some Christies, on re-reading, sadly do not live up to my remembrances of the initial read ( Body in the Library and The Big Four, I am looking at you), and some exceed them. Among the latter I count both The Sittaford Mystery and this book.
It's glorious.
Oh it's just a romp, y'all. A big, happy romp. Anne is fantastically plucky and level-headed (she reminded me quite a bit of Susan, Death's daughter on the Discworld) and gallops headlong into adventure, carrying the reader along. There are smoky-eyed Parisian spies and drafty, over-sized English houses, scraps of mysterious paper, a cruise to South Africa, various trains that are caught and jumped off on their way to Rhodesia, an eccentric married heroine, a fussy old MP and his neverending retinue of secretaries, an oversized wooden giraffe, Victoria Falls, and of course, the man in the brown suit.
That's really all the details I'm going to give you about the plot because it's too awesome to spoil in any way, shape or form. One of the Amazon reviewers referred to the book as Christie's "most romantic novel" and I have to agree. At this point in my re-read of the collection, it's also her best.