The Man in the Brown Suit (published in 1924) written by Agatha Christie

This was another book of Agatha Christie that was written without her main characters of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. The book was published in 1924, and is more like a thriller than a detective novel, following the adventure of a young orphan girl who gets into a mystery after encountering an accident on the London tube station where she encounters a man who fell onto the track, and a doctor then tends to the man. While leaving, the supposed doctor drops a note which the young girl (Anne Beddingfeld) picks up, and so starts her adventure. She could have been like other people, dropping the note into a trash can, and not thinking about it again; in which case there would have been no novel, and no story. However, she did pick it up, and so started a major mystery story that crosses several countries, thrilling escapades and encounters with diamond robbers, murderers and political intrigue. Mixed in is the tale of a former international criminal called the Colonel, who organizes terrorism and who is hanging up his boots; what happened to his former agents ? Nothing, since he decides to leave them as they are and they have to tend for themselves now.



The book starts with one of the former agents, Nadina, who acts like a Russian dancer, and also another agent called Count Sergius Paulovitch, both of them agents of the Colonel, who are pondering their future. The Colonel has decided to leave them as they are, without any financial support or protection against their enemies; and they have to take care of their own future now. There are multiple people involved in this adventure, besides Anne, and as would be expected from such a book, one can never be sure about who is on the right side and who is a villain. Some of the people involved in the book are:
- Sir Eustace Pedler, MP, who is also 'The Colonel', a criminal mastermind
- Guy Pagett, Sir Eustace Pedler's secretary
- Anita Grünberg, alias Nadina, alias Mrs de Castina – one-time agent of 'The Colonel'
- Arthur Minks, alias the Rev. Edward Chichester alias Miss Pettigrew, alias Count Sergius Paulovitch - an agent of 'The Colonel'
- Mr Flemming, solicitor, and his wife: Anne's landlords after her father's death
and many others.
This was a pretty interesting book, and well worth reading.