The Man in the Brown Suit: Anne Beddingfeld’s Adventure from London to South Africa
The orphan Anne Beddingfeld leaves home when her father dies and heads for London in search of adventure. There she witnesses a death on an Underground platform, and sees a mysterious man attend to the victim, claiming to be a doctor, before hurrying away. Anne picks up a note that has fallen from the victim’s pocket and follows the trail out of London.
Author: Agatha Christie (1890–1976)
Title: The Man in the Brown Suit (1924)
Format: English paperback (HarperCollins), 320 pages
Scope: Standalone adventure mystery set in London and South Africa
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0008196206 (ASIN 0008196206)
Kilmorden Castle
In the course of her investigations she discovers that Kilmorden Castle is the name of a liner bound for South Africa, and the fearless young woman does not hesitate to board it, following clues that will lead her into an incredible story.
Stolen Diamonds
She finally reaches a remote island in Africa, on the trail of stolen diamonds. But who was the man in the brown suit who examined the body before fleeing? Armed with a single cryptic clue, Anne is determined to track him down and bring the mysterious killer to justice.
From Christie’s Own Travels
The novel grew directly out of Christie’s own adventure. In 1922 she and her first husband, Archie, joined a year-long tour of the British Empire to promote the coming British Empire Exhibition, sailing to South Africa, visiting Rhodesia and the Victoria Falls, and going on to Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The mission’s leader, Major Ernest Belcher, a boisterous and demanding man, became the model for one of the book’s most entertaining characters, Sir Eustace Pedler. Christie even learned to surf on the trip, in South Africa and Hawaii.
Two Narrators
Much of the story is told by Anne herself, with humour and a touch of self-mockery, but Christie alternates her account with extracts from the diary of Sir Eustace Pedler, a wealthy, lazy member of parliament who is travelling on the same ship and complains endlessly about his secretaries. The contrast between the two voices is one of the book’s pleasures. The novel also introduces Colonel Race, a quiet intelligence man who later joins Poirot in Cards on the Table and Death on the Nile.
Diamonds and Revolution
The South African chapters are set against real events: the novel’s background includes the turbulent strike of white miners on the Rand in 1922, which Christie turns into a backdrop of riots and martial law in Johannesburg. Add a stolen fortune in diamonds, a fashionable friend called Suzanne Blair and a brooding young man with a past, and the result is closer to a John Buchan adventure than to a country-house puzzle.
A Heroine Ahead of Her Time
Anne, who sets off for Africa with almost no money because she wants adventure, is one of Christie’s most independent heroines. The story was first serialised in a London newspaper under the title Anne the Adventurous, and her spirit is the reason to read it today.
Who Will Enjoy It
Readers who prefer adventure to deduction, and anyone curious about Christie’s early career, when she was still trying out different kinds of story. The plot is extravagant, the coincidences generous and the romance unashamed, but the twist in the final chapters is pure Christie, and it has fooled generations of readers. It also works well as a holiday book: a sea voyage, safari landscapes and a heroine who refuses to be told what she cannot do.
Why Read It
This is Christie in adventurous mood rather than drawing-room mode, with a spirited heroine who narrates much of the story herself, a sea voyage and African landscapes. It is lighter than the Poirot novels and great fun.
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