45. Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie (Mystery) 224 p.

Partners in Crime features Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, the husband-and-wife team who first appeared in The Secret Adversary and went on to star in N or M, By the Pricking of My Thumbs, and Postern of Fate. I’ve always found the latter three strange and confused, but I adore early Tommy and Tuppence.

Somewhat bored with life as a London housewife, Tuppence feels she’s grown to take the good things in her life for granted, and vetoes Tommy’s solution:

“Shall I neglect you a little?” suggested Tommy. “Take other women about to night clubs. That sort of thing.”

“Useless,” said Tuppence. “You would only meet me there with other men. And I should know perfectly well that you didn’t care for the other women, whereas you would never be quite sure that I didn’t care for the other men. Women are so much more thorough.”

Instead, she wishes for something exciting to happen—and only moments later, she gets the answer to her wish. Tommy works in an unspecified government intelligence agency, and his boss, Mr. Carter, offers the couple the chance to do a bit of field work. Tommy and Tuppence agree to take over a small detective agency, working on perfectly genuine cases while they keep an eye out for espionage.

The Beresfords take to detecting like ducks to water, amusing themselves (and me) by using the methods of various fictional detectives, including both Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Their efforts are amateur, but aside from one or two embarrassing incidents, they generally manage to carry the day.

Partners in Crime is partly mystery, and partly a hilarious parody of fictional detectives’ methods and mannerisms—in fact, Tommy and Tuppence spend most of their time imitating the mannerisms rather than the methods, which only makes it funnier—as do their clients bemused reactions to them in their various roles.

This book was another re-read for me, but I’d forgotten just how wonderful it is, and I had an even better time revisiting Tommy and Tuppence’s adventures than I anticipated.

Pages read: 12,560

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, Agatha Christie, Anything Agatha Challenge, short story collection, Tommy and Tuppence