The Secret Adversary

Breaking out in a genre largely dominated by men, in a field where women were very much in the minority, Agatha Christie defied expectations with her detective fiction, first with the character Poirot, then with Tommy and Tuppence, the crime solvers in The Secret Adversary. This marks the couples’ first appearance together, and the story not only follows their foibles, it details the development of their romantic relationship, beginning with their close friendship of many years and ending with an engagement. Despite their personality differences, they make a good team, and Christie’s novel was received with almost universal praise.