#MyAgathaChristieYear-Part 3-‘N or M?’

‘N Or M’ by Agatha Christie is my fourth and final read for January and is a Tommy and Tuppence Beresford mystery.

This cheeky paperback cunningly hid for 2 days with me tearing the house apart-just for a change-searching for the book (finally located under a pile of wool).

So, what’s this one about?

Husband and wife team Tommy and Tuppence are feeling past, useless yet desperate to be a part of the Second World war effort.

After being told that they are too old for active service, and supremely disatisfied with knitting balaclavas, a knock on the door provides exactly the respite that Tommy needs,

The death of undercover operative, Farquhar, has created an opening to work out who is an undercover, special operative or Fifth Columnist, feeding Allied information to the Germans whilst pretending to be one of our own. Farquhar was ‘accidentally’ run over but before dying whispered the phrase ‘N or M Song Susie’.

This is deciphered as a boarding house named ‘Sans Souci’ (without worry in French) in Leahampton on the coast-the secret service know that N is a man and M a woman so Tommy, much to Tuppence’s chagrin, leaves telling her that it is office work that he is up to, nothing remotely exciting.

Imagine his surprise when he arrives in Leahampton to recognise a familiar face…

This is a brilliant piece of detective fiction, it taps into the war time paranoia about refugees and asylum seekers which quite neatly parallels our own troubling time frame. Tommy and Tuppence put life and limb on the line trying to maintain their secret identities and uncover the cuckoo in  the nest of odd people who are holidaying in Sans Souci.

If you have only ever read Poirot or Marple, this is a refreshing change to try which I would thoroughly recommend!
Next time, I will be reading ‘‘Cards On The Table’

Please feel free to join in, comment on the reads, make suggestions or share your own readalongs/Christie marathons!

About the author…

Agatha Christie is the best-selling author of all time. She wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym ,Mary Westmacott.

Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author, having been translated into at least 103 languages.

She is the creator of two of the most enduring figures in crime literature-Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple-and author of ‘The Mousetrap’, the longest-running play in the history of modern theatre.

Links-https://www.podbean.com/ew/dir-sgq2s-30a5a97

https://www.agathachristie.com/

Links to other review posts-

My Agatha Christie Year Part 9-Halloween Party

My Agatha Christie Year Part 8-Lord Edgware Dies

My Agatha Christie Year Part 7-After The Funeral

My Agatha Christie Year Part 6-Five Little Pigs

My Agatha Christie Year Part 5 -Poirot Investigates

My Agatha Christie Year Part 4-Cards On the Table

My Agatha Christie Year Part 3- N Or M?

My Agatha Christie Year-Part 2-The Man In The Brown Suit

My Agatha Christie Year Part 1-Miss Marple’s Final Cases