The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie Narrator: Nicola Barber, Graeme Malcolm
Series: Colonel Race #1
Published by Audible Studios on October 6, 2020 (first published 1924)
Source: Audible Plus
Genres: Vintage Mystery
Length: 7 hrs 44 mins
Pages: 257
Format: Audiobook
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Adventure-seeking Anne Beddingfeld is in London when she sees a stranger fall to his electrifying death in the tubes. A dreadful accident? If so, who is the man in the brown suit fleeing from the scene? Curiosity, and one cryptic clue, leads Anne aboard a cruise ship to Cape Town and into the confidence of Colonel Race, counterintelligence officer for MI5. Drawn into a dangerous conspiracy, Anne’s found the adventure she wanted. And as she’s chased across continents, all she must do now is survive it.
Diamond thieves, murder, double identities, and risky romance collide in Agatha Christie’s classic thriller of globe-hopping intrigue and whiplash twists.
The Man in the Brown Suit has been on my list to read for a while. I’ve read a lot of Agatha Christie’s, but this is a Colonel Race book, and he has never been my favorite of her characters. Honestly, I should have read it earlier. Anne Beddingfield, our amateur sleuth, is awesome. She’s practical, but full of grit and she doesn’t frighten easily. She’s also a hopeless romantic.
Anne was raised by her anthropologist father, a well-known academic but a poor man more wrapped up in the dead than the living. After he dies, Anne refuses a more “suitable” arrangement and determines to find adventure. Then it happens – a man on the train platform near her falls to his death after seeing something that frightens him. The doctor who tends to the man wears a brown suit, and after he leaves hurriedly, Anne has her suspicions as to whether or not he is actually a doctor. She knows she has found her adventure and sets off for South Africa based on a scrap of paper. We have a interesting collection of passengers including the rich socialite Suzanne Bailey, Sir Eustace Pedler and his suspect Padgett and Rayburn, and Colonel Race.
The novel is mostly told from Anne’s point of view, but we also get hear entries from the diary of Sir Eustace Pedler. Sir Eustace is funny and out of his element and complains a fair amount about most everyone.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story. There is plenty of action, and the novel is travelogue, mystery, and romance all rolled in one.
About Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English crime novelist, short story writer and playwright. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world’s longest-running play, a murder mystery, The Mousetrap, and six romances under the name Mary Westmacott. In 1971 she was elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her contribution to literature.