Customer Reviews

Man in the Brown Suit

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"The Man in the Brown Suit" is a drab title for Ms. Christie's most romantic novel. It is interesting to see what type of girl (Ann Beddelfield) is Dame Agatha's ideal: well born, raised by her academic father but not devoted to him, beautiful and aware of it, uses her many charms to get her way, intelligent but wildly impractical, idealistic, adventurous and believes in that knight in shining armor will come and carry her away.

Ann is deeply afraid she will end up in a rut forever as an underpaid secretary only to marry a ho-hum businessman and while away her life. Her father's meager inheritance, 87 pounds, even in 1924 money, will not see her far. She impulsively buys a ticket to South Africa that costs exactly 87 pounds, hoping for adventure. The subsequent story exceeds her wildest dreams with mysterious deaths, kidnapping, diamonds and Russian ballet dancers.

Miss Christie has some excellent descriptive scenes of South Africa. It is clear the author is in love with the landscape, the mystery and the vivid life of the area. I never quite got in the spirit of the "adventure," as I worried incessantly (seeing as Ann would not) over what she was going to use for money once she stepped off the boat. The book does not contain a master sleuth, so it is not a case of one grand mystery, but a series of small mysteries solved as you go. There were so many subplots, I lost all sight of the main purpose, but was agreeable if confused.

"The Man in the Brown Suit" is a departure for Christie, one I'm glad she did not make too often. However, it is a good natured, high-spirited romp, and I am sure she had a grand time writing it. 3-1/2 stars.
-sweetmolly- Amazon Reviewer

This was one of Christie's earlier novels, but one of her most entertaining. It's pure brain candy, full of wit and adventure, with an appealing, intelligent heroine of the kind found in P.G. Wodehouse books of this period, and, later on, in the mysteries of Elizabeth Peters. Anne makes some nice points about the difficulties of the usual cinematic methods of freeing oneself when bound and dumped in a cellar. She also eats an extraordinary number of ice-cream sodas and collects native art to interesting effect. Oh, yes, and there are some murders and stolen diamonds involved.

An advantage to the light tone, aside from its sheer entertainment value, is that it makes the reader a little more forgiving of Christie's stretches of credibility, which especially in some of her middle period novels can be a bit much. Not that I don't love her novels. But in some there is an almost palpable sense one kind of talent trying to be another...in "Endless Night", for example, she's rather clumsily dealing with the kind of psychological issues that writers like Thomas Harris would take up.

This book, however, is Christie at her brightest and most appealing, and shows the facility with plot which would develop into one of the greatest gifts for story-construction that English literature has ever known.

Anne Beddingfield has lived all her life in a small village with her father, an anthropologist who is interested only in Paeleolithic Man. Anne longs for romance and adventure, and rather envies their maid, who has 'walked out' with a variety of young men. Then Anne's father dies suddenly, and she gets a chance at adventure when she witnesses the accidental death of a man at a London tube station. She has reason to beleive that this death is connected to the murder of a woman at a house in Marlow, but the police aren't interested in her theories, so she persuades a newspaper proprietor to take an interest. Anne takes passage on a ship bound for South Africa, believeing the answer to the mystery is to be found on the ship. There are a number of interesting people on board, charming Mrs Blair, enigmatic Colonel Race, the creepy clergyman Chichester, and eccentric and delightful Sir Eustace Pedler. Some or all of them may be up to no good. A lot of exciting things happen to Anne on the voyage, not the least exciting is when a handsome wounded stranger takes refuge in her cabin. Her adventures continue when they get to South Africa, and she finds herself with more excitement than she had ever dreamt of. Anne is a delightful heroine, adventurous and resourceful and humorous (and despite what a previous reviwer says, not in the least like tiresome, pompous Amelia Peabody). This book has an exciting plot, interesting characters, adventure, romance and humour, what more could you want? ( Actually, again disagreeing with a previous reviewer, I thought the film of this story, allowing for the fact that it was updated by sixty years, stuck reasonably closely to the original story).

I suppose like characters in PG Wodehouse, many educated English girls yearn to break free from the bindings of the Victorian society as the world appeared to be open to them, with past explorers having blazed the trails and the availability of modern transportation such as steamers and railroads to take them beyond the horizons where thousands had gone before. Oh, and of course the proliferation of trashy adventure thrillers also helped spark off their imagination; few glamourous adventure heroines suffered from sea-sickness or the availability of dashing boyfriends always there for them.

When Anne, an orphaned English young lady, witnessed a death in the London tube, she found herself drawn into a real adventure without any clues to what she was really going after. All she had were vague clues that she had seen the "man in the brown suit", who was known to be present at two apparently unrelated deaths, one being the supposed accident at the tube, another was a strangled woman in the house belonging to an English MP Sir Eustace Pedler.

Finding herself on board a cruise to South Africa, Anne found the web of intrigue expanded to include several more persona dramatis; the events seemed to surround these people whom all appear to be totally legitimate.

Slowly, she learned that the affair was somehow related to one of the most daring diamond theft that occurred years ago, to a mysterious criminal organisation led by a shadowy mastermind known only as the Colonel, and with the luck of the British, she only got a couple of attempts on her life. Of course, just to make things a little bit more interesting, she found herself drawn to a man who personally declared he would strangle women with his bare hands.

Although the background of South Africa had certain significance to the plot, like the attitudes of most colonials of the time, the native colour and people were relegated far to the background.

I'm a huge Agatha Christie nut and this is one of her best. Anyone who liked this (especially the romance side of it) ought to try and find Giant's Bread, one of the 5 or 6 true romance novels (NOT trash, though) she wrote (under a different name, but they're all published now with her real name)

When dealing with an author with a resume like Agatha Christie's, it can be just a bit difficult for reader's to know what books to skip over and what books to run out and buy immediately. Well, The Man in the Brown Suit is defintely one of the latter. It is a synthesis of all the novel aspects Christie has mastered. With the flurry of suspicious characters, a riveting plot, alluring stranger, nocturnal murder attempts and stolen diamonds, the reader is defintely kept on her toes. Christie creates a wide array of characters in this one; we're given an inexperienced girl out for adventure, the strong, silent man with a secret, a blundering, pompous [behind], a young, rich socialite, and, of course, the man in the brown suit. Filled with wonderful and entertaining subplots, this book flies by, more than the usual page turner.

I was introduced to Agatha Christie via And Then There Were None, possibly her most popular novel. I loved it; I didn't see how it could get any better, and I was afraid I'd be dissappointed with any other Christie mysteries. But, not so! This book is definetly as thrilling and suspenceful as And Then There Were None; stop what you're doing right now, and go get this book!

The Man in the Brown Suit is the best of Agatha Christie's non-series mysteries (Poitot, Marple, Tommy and Tuppence) and one of the first books to showcase her charms as an author. She filled the mystery with many interesting characters and gave the reader two narrators who both are surprisingly interesting and funny in their own unique ways. It is nice to go back to this early mystery and find a successful author discovering her voice. Christie stills insists on filling the story with improbable romance (and, quite frankly, she always did) but, that aside, this is an exciting little tale that travels from England to South Africa with a wonderfully thrilling interlude about a ship. A must for Christie fans.

This is probably Christie's most romantic adventure, so you may not care about the whodunit plot so much as you do the people dotting it. Her leading heroine Anne is sympathetic and enjoyable from the beginning and her chemistry with the mysterious title character is the stuff of fine love stories. What with revolutions raging in the background and African scenery and a cache of diamonds and characters in disguise, you definitely won't be bored. Good book to curl up with on cold, dreary rainy afternoons.

Once in a while, to break up Poirot and Marple's murder solving stranglehold, Agatha Christie would usher in a new protagonist. And I'll say it's darn refreshing to read about a Christie shamus who isn't a daintily mustached Belgian or an unassuming old lady with a piercing wit. Me, I've always vastly preferred Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, that fun-loving and much younger detecting couple. And then Agatha Christie also wrote those mysteries that featured non-series, one time only sleuths. Case in point, THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT with its central character, the lovely and adventurous Anne Beddingfeld.

Her work-obsessed anthropologist father just passed away, Anne finds herself a suddenly independent young woman, released from the doldrums. Far from the retiring or as yet the marrying sort, Anne stands at a crossroad and opts for adventure... and stumbles across it when she witnesses a horrifying demise at the London tube station. When the tube accident becomes linked to a foreign lady's brutal murder, a thrilled Anne Beddingfeld willingly turns detective.

Anne's unflagging clue-chasing (galvanized by suspicions raised by a whiff of mothballs) leads her onboard a South Africa-bound luxury liner, a sea voyage on which she becomes embroiled in espionage and skullduggery and which sees her life imperiled. The opening chapter informs us of a ruthless criminal mastermind styling himself "the Colonel," and anticipation builds up once we realize that the writer is setting up our young, newly-orphaned miss to match wits against such a formidable foe.

THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT was a contemporary work when it was first published in 1924, but today can be read as a fun period thriller. But this isn't your typical Agatha Christie fare. In content, it has more in common with a thriller than a mystery, more so Tommy & Tuppence in THE SECRET ADVERSARY than any of the cerebral Poirot/Marple whodunits. And unlike Poirot and Marple - and this is understandable - Anne Beddingfeld, bright young thing, eagerly dabbles in a tempestuous romance. So, if you're looking for an Agatha Christie book that's a bit out of the norm, take a chance on THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT, in which there is no scarcity of suspects. Who is "the Colonel?" Is it, in fact, the dashing colonel who may or may not work for British Intelligence? Is it one of the two snooty male secretaries? Is it that malicious and sneaky reverend? Or the desperate fugitive from justice whom the news rags are calling "the Man in the Brown Suit"?

To spice things up even more, there's a sinister master of disguise skulking about. And stolen loot in the shape of rough diamonds. Anne Beddingfeld, undaunted adventuress, exhibits pluck and marbles and resourcefulness. She frequently gets in over her head, except that she then routinely extricates herself from these treacherous scrapes (although, here and there, luck or a gallant rescuer does step in). And, yes, she does eventually figure out who "the Colonel" really is. Christie makes sneaky use of a narrative device to try to fool the reader, but I'd eaten my Wheaties when I picked up this book, so I caught on. But is it wrong to say that I ended up liking the head villain much more so than Anne's romantic interest who happens to be this humorless block, I mean, bloke?

For Christie-philes, note that this is the first appearance of Colonel Race, who would appear in three more Christie novels: CARDS ON THE TABLE, DEATH ON THE NILE, and SPARKLING CYANIDE.

The Man in the Brown Suit is an early (1924) novel by Dame Agatha Christie the Queen of Crime. It is not a country weekend murder mystery solved in a drawing room. Instead it is a wild story of diamonds in South Africa; young love and murder.
The heroine is Anne Beddingfeld who has spent years assisting her anthropolgist father with his many explorations in exotic locales throughout the earth. The father dies of double pneumonia. Anne goes to live with
her father's former lawyer and his dowdy wife. The couple are nice to Anne but she is bored with middle class life in London. One day Anne is walking to a tube station when she sees a stranger fall backward and onto the tracks where he is electrocuted on the rails. She also sees a man (who she assumes to be a doctor) clad in a brown suit pronounce the unfortunate man dead. As the man in the brown suit leaves the station he drops a piece of paper containing the enigmatic words: 17-122 Kilmorden Castle. The next day sees the murder of a woman at Mill House. Anne obtains a job with a newspaper seeking to link the two murders.
Anne books passage on the "Kilmorden Castle" taking her to adventures in South Africa. Aboard ship is the fabulously wealthy Sir Eustace Pedler. The chapters of the 277 page book alternate between the two narrators Christie uses(Ann and Sir Eustace). The diaries give a sense of immediacy to the proceedings.
Anne seeks to find out the idenity of the mysterious "Colonel" who is the head of a jewel thief gang. Along the way she falls in love with Harry Rayburn. Was Rayburn framed for the murder of Nadina the dead woman found at the mill? Anne escapes many attempts to murder her but emerges triumphant and happily married by the final page.
This novel was adapted as a TV drama by CBS in 1989. It is not a bad novel but not the first one my hands would reach for when I come to the Agatha Christie shelf in my library.