‘The Man in the Brown Suit’ by Agatha Christie

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The Man in the Brown Suit is a detective story written by Agatha Christie.

Anne Beddingfield, whose father, a famous Professor, has recently died, decides to change her life looking for adventures when she arrives in London.

She finds a mystery when at Hyde Park Corner Tube station a man looks over her shoulder, staggers back in terror at something or someone he sees, and falls onto the live track, dying instantly. A strange doctor appears, has a short look and runs away leaving a piece of paper with her single clue. Then, another assassination is committed and she discovers they are related. The clues lead her to a boat trip to South Africa an she is brave enough to spend most of her money on finding the murderer. In the ship she meets a lot of people, friends, suspicious characters, even someone to fall in love with! Besides, she also discovers that she is looking for a real gangster who controls some of the world crime!

This has been the first book by Agatha Christie I’ve read. In my opinion, this isn’t a typical detective story because the surroundings aren’t very usual. It starts in London, but then, the story continues in a ship and in several places in South Africa: Cape Town, The falls, Johannesburg… I’ve never read an Agatha Christie’s book before but I had always thought of grey and foggy streets or rich houses and not exotic landscapes. The Man in the Brown Suit was also the first book I’ve read in original version so it was quite difficult for me because I had to stop to look up many words that I couldn’t understand even in context.

In conclusion, you should read this book if you like living adventures and following clues, and a bit of love!

‘The Listerdale Mystery’ by Agatha Christie

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Agatha Christie, the most famous writer of mystery novels in the world, titled this novel like the first of several short stories of mystery and suspense.

The Listerdale Mystery is the first of the 12 stories in this book. It tells the story of a window and her daughter and son who are in a bad financial situation and they are forced to leave their house and look for a cheaper one. They find and very big and cheap house with butler. At the end they discover that the butler wasn’t a real butler…

Philomel Cottage tells us the story of a woman in her mid-thirties who has a normal life and a close friend called Dick. Two events happen suddenly. A distant cousin dies leaving her an important amount of money, and the other event, she meets a man at a friend’s party and falls in love. A month later, they get married and they go to live to Philomel Cottage, a pretty cottage. Her close friend Dick is furious and warns her that she knows nothing about her new husband…

The girl in the train: George, a mild young man is sacked from his job in a family city firm and decides to travel to Rowland’s Castle. In the train he knows a mystery girl who is running away from his uncle, and he helps her. She gives him a parcel to guard safely and she tells him to keep an eye on a small dark bearded man. George follows the man and books a room in the same hotel…

Sing a Song of Sixpence, The manhood of Edward Robinson, Accident, Jane in search of a job, a fruitful Sunday, Mr. Eastwood’s adventure, the Golden Ball, the Rajah’s Emerald, Swan Song, are the titles of the rest of the stories in this book. In all these stories people aren’t t who we think they are, in all of them there is an unexpected end full of mystery.

In my opinion, this is a strange Agatha Chirstie’s novel that tells us different strange stories with amazing but very strange endings.