The Man In The Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

 

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie.

This edition published 23rd March 2017 by Harper Collins. 

From the cover of the book:

A young woman investigates an accidental death at a London tube station, and finds herself of a ship bound for South Africa…

Pretty, young Anne came to London looking for adventure. In fact, adventure comes looking for her – and finds her immediately at Hyde Park Corner tube station. 

Anne is present on the platform when a thin man, reeking of mothballs, loses his balance and is electocuted on the rails.

The Scotland Yard verdict is accidental death. But Anne is not satisfied.

After all, who was the man in the brown suit who examined the body? And why did he race off, leaving a cryptic message behind: ‘17-122 Kilmorden Castle’?

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This year I am very excited to be taking part in the Official Agatha Christie #ReadChristie2022 challenge, which has started with a stunner of a mystery completely outside out of my cosy Poirot zone - The Man in the Brown Suit, which is a perfect choice for January's prompt of a book 'Inspired by Agatha's travels'.

This is the tale of young Anne Beddingfield, a frustrated heroine, who finds herself caught up in an adventure after witnessing the death of a strange man on the London Underground in 1922. When the police pronounce his death accidental Anne is convinced they are wrong, and she decides to investigate the matter herself.

Armed with a single cryptic clue, Anne finds herself on an ocean liner headed for South Africa and in the company of lots of suspicious characters. Can she bring the guilty to justice?

This is a glorious tale full of intrigue and vivid characters up to no good. It's surprisingly full of humour, especially in the form of Anne's pithy asides, and bold, adventurous storylines, which marks it as quite different from my usual Christie mystery, but it's every bit as complex as I was hoping for with red herrings galore. Interestingly, Colonel Race also pops up in this book who I know from a couple of Poirot mysteries, and I loved the whole shebang!

I alternated reading this one with listening to the excellent audio book narrated by Emilia Fox, whose voice talents had me frequently chuckling away, and I highly recommend it if audio books are your bag.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what February's choice is for a book featuring 'travel and romance'. ❤