The Secret Adversary

by Agatha Christie Book 1 in the Tommy and Tuppence Mysteries series.

First published 1922

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Soon after the First World War, unemployed friends Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley create Young Adventurers Ltd and offer themselves for dangerous work. Their first approach draws them into the search for Jane Finn, a young woman who survived the sinking of the Lusitania while carrying secret treaty papers.

The missing documents could strengthen a revolutionary conspiracy led by the elusive Mr Brown, and the pair move through false identities, kidnappings and political clubs in a Britain unsettled by demobilisation and labour unrest. The novel connects wartime catastrophe to post-war espionage while establishing Tommy’s caution and Tuppence’s improvisation as complementary forms of detective work.