A Jolly Holiday with Anne: The Man in the Brown Suit 2.0

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"When I am married, I shall be a devil most of the time, but every now and then, when my husband least expects it, I shall show him what a perfect angel I can be." 

-Anne Beddingfeld, The Man in the Brown Suit, p. 202

The Sum of It:
The Man in the Brown Suit is one of those delightful early Agatha books that is heavily spy thriller, with a dash of murder mystery, and a lot of exotic locations. Anne Beddingfeld is a spunky young woman who is somewhat repressed in her adventurous aspirations by assisting her professor father - "one of England's greatest living authorities on Primitive Man" - with his work. When he father sadly dies near the beginning of the book (CAUTIONARY TALE - WEAR A COAT WHEN DIGGING IN CAVES!), Anne heads to London with the little money her father left her. Anne is desperate for excitement, and London seems to be ready to give her nothing but governess or old lady companion jobs, HOWEVER, while waiting for her train at a tube station, Anne witnesses something very bizarre and exciting indeed: a man falls to his death on the train rails. Though it initially seems like an accident, Anne also notices a man in a brown suit (!!!) claiming to be a doctor examine the dead man's body, but then quickly flee the scene, leaving a scrap of paper with a mysterious message on it in his wake. "THIS IS THE ADVENTURE I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!," Anne says and goes full YOLO, deciding to devote herself to getting to the bottom of this strange experience. Using the last of her money, her wits, and what she's learned from adventure radio dramas, Anne hurls herself into a saga full of diamonds, dead ballerinas, handsome brooding men, and so much more.

The YOA Treatment:
When Emily read this book for our 2016 Year of Agatha, she quickly vaulted it into her top favorites. It had been at least a decade since I had read The Man in the Brown Suit, and I couldn't remember much about it, but I trusted her high praise. It made sense that Emily liked it so much because she is more partial to Agatha's more thriller-y novels (a la The Secret Adversary and The Secret at Chimneys, etc.), and I would definitely put this novel into that same category. While I'm usually more into the straightforward murder mysteries, I must admit I did thoroughly enjoy The Man in the Brown Suit. This book is a bit melodramatic at times (Anne's banter with/about her #crush is just hysterical) and sprinkled with some rather outdated references, however, the overall effect plays out like an old timey Rom Com with a bit more fluff and humor and overseas travel than truly terrifying near-death experiences. This novel is primarily written from Anne's point of view, and she is surprisingly relatable, even 94 years after it was published. Who hasn't dreamed of being dropped in the middle of your very own mysterious adventure, that (seemingly) only you can solve? While The Man in the Brown Suit doesn't go into the psychological crime solving games you may be used to from a Christie, it is another example of Agatha's ability to write long-lasting, relatable tales.

-A.

An Education: Cat Among the Pigeons 2.0

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"I think there is something wrong here," said Eileen Rich slowly. "It's as though there were someone among us who didn't belong." She looked at him, smiled, almost laughed and said, "Cat among the pigeons, that's the sort of feeling. We're the pigeons, all of us, and the cat's amongst us. But we can't see the cat."
- Cat Among the Pigeons, p. 98

The Sum of It:

Though most of it is set in a quintessential English mystery setting, a fancy girls school on a country estate, Agatha brings her personal twist even to the setting, starting the action out in her beloved Middle East. The fictional state of Ramat is on the brink of revolution, and beleaguered (and #doomed) Prince Ali Yusuf entrusts his family's nest egg, a literal pile of glittering jewels, to his righthand man, Bob, a British secret service type fellow who kind of acts as Ali Yusuf's bodyguard. Before they attempt to escape the revolution, Bob frantically looks for a way to get the jewels out of the country to jolly old England, making a surprising choice at the last minute. But before he can let anyone know where he hid them, Bob and Ali Yusuf meet an unfortunate end, and the jewels are hidden, their location guessed by only a few. 

Following this exciting spy-like episode, the action transitions to Meadowbank, a posh but slightly progressive girls boarding school in the British countryside, with an interesting assortment of educators, from the snobbish French Mistress to the unconventional but enchanting literature teacher, led by the formidable Miss Bulstrode. The students, a meticulously selected blend of sturdy British athletes, glamorous princesses, and clever scholars, and educators are all shocked when their idyllic environs are darkened by the mysterious murder of the unpopular games mistress, Miss Springer, in the school's fancy new athletics pavilion. When this death is followed by others, all the ladies start worrying that there's really a cat among the pigeons, and along with the police and the secret government agent in their midst, they must track the murderer down and figure out their motive before more lives -- and the life of the celebrated school -- are endangered. 

The YOA Treatment:

Audrey read and loved this book during the original year of Agatha, and I totally see why. This tale is classic Christie, her skill in her prime, and the type of story that became a model for other books in the genre for generations to come. Where sometimes mysteries are too obvious (though this is rarely if ever the case for Agatha), or so sneaky that there's NO way a reader to solve it before the author produces the reveal, this one is calibrated perfectly so that the savviest readers might figure out Agatha's clever twists by the end, but most of us can joyously read a long and pick up on some of the clues but enjoy the surprise but retrospective inevitability of the resolution when Poirot maps it out. 

One of the fun things about this book is that although Poirot steps in to help out the folks at Meadowbank and the venerable police wrap things up, for most of the story we get to see lots of new characters working their way through the mystery on their own. We often highlight some of the fun and ahead-of-their-time female empowerment elements of Agatha's work, and this book is a great example. Not only do we see the poised and perceptive Miss Bulstrode outsmart the police every time, but we see Agatha offer some of the cleverest deductions to an intrepid, tennis-loving schoolgirl, who works a huge piece of the mystery out for herself and takes the initiative to travel to London on her own and bring Poirot in on the action at exactly the right moment to protect herself, and her schoolmates, and get to the bottom of the crimes on campus. This one will definitely be among the first Agathas I recommend to friends, especially the ones who like to race the book's crime solvers to the final deduction!

- E.