N or M? / Agatha Christie

3 out of 5 stars

The final words of the dying man...the code names of Hitler's most dangerous agents...the mysterious clue that sends Tommy and Tuppence to a seaside resort on a mission of wartime intelligence. But not as husband and wife. As strangers, meeting by chance, setting an elaborate trap for an elusive killer.

***2018 Summer of Spies***

A fast, fun expedition into espionage! I liked the fact that Christie allowed her main characters to age and change a bit. As is true for most of us, they retained their basic characteristics which turned them into spy hunters to begin with, but they are dealing with details that afflict us all as we age. Younger folk (including the Beresford children) no longer see our relevance and no one wants the skills that we have on offer—just ask anyone who is over 40 and unemployed and they will tell you all about it!

Tommy must have a thick skull, because he once again gets clonked on the head in this novel, but manages to come out of things un-addled. The plot is not as smooth as Christie’s murder mysteries, but it is fun to see Tuppence trying to pretend to be a middle-aged lady who knits & gossips. Tommy at least gets to go out and play golf.

I’m currently reading a biography of Ian Fleming and I’m at the point of reading about his experiences in WWI in the Royal Navy’s Intelligence Unit—although this T&T caper seems a bit outlandish, it’s not that far off of some of the imaginative schemes that NID came up with to try to thwart the Nazis, which surprised me a lot. All of the global intelligence services have come a long way since the 1940s.

A bit of summer fun.