“The Secret Adversary” is one of Tommy and Tuppence mysteries – and the only one from this series I’ve so far managed to lay my hands on. It’s a perfect thriller, and I absolutely love it. I read it for the first time thirteen years ago, and now just had to refresh it in memory before reviewing it – but I remember the first time, and how completely mystified I was.
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The Hallowe’en party for schoolchildren who are over 11 has been a success. The contests have been finished, the winners defined and the prizes given for everything: bobbing for apples, cutting the flour cake and the best decorated broom. After the Snapdragon everyone should go home – there is nothing more to do here. Only nobody can locate that thirteen-year-old girl, Joyce, who always boasts… annoying, isn’t it, that she delays everyone else?
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Another one of Hercule Poirot cases – this time, his friend Captain Hastings is here too. The setup is a little unusual – before each murder is committed, Hercule Poirot receives a letter from the murderer, challenging him – and then, when it’s actually committed, Poirot can do nothing about it. Not every day we see this great man fail!
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This book – unlike most of the books written by this authors – didn’t grab my attention at once. When I first made an attempt at reading it, I did a chapter and a half – and then put the book aside. It bored me. Now I can’t believe it, because my second attempt was more successful, and the book proved excellent.
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A small village just after the Second World War – very cosy, very English and apparently the safest place in the world. When a weird announcement appears in the most popular local newspaper stating that there is going to be a murder in one of the houses and inviting friends to take part, most people assume it’s just about a murder game – and many of them arrive just in time, rather impatient.
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Everyone believed Rosemary Barton’s death to be suicide. She was poisoned by cyanide at her own birthday party. She had been depressed, unhappy, deserted by her lover – she’d been actually caught writing a letter to her sister instructing her what to do with her things. Everyone accepted the suicide version.
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Another one of those great Hercule Poirot mysteries. A young, beautiful lady hires the famous detective to do, in her own words, something fantastic.
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What can I say? This is one of the greatest detective novels written by one of the best known detective story writers. It features Hercule Poirot – the famous old little man from Belgium with a great moustache, neat clothes and incredible grey cells that never fail him.
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