I haven't really focused on Christie's non-Poirot/Marple books. Last year I said j would read all of Christie's other books and I just got busy and lost interest. Now I'm ready to take a look at her other works. There's also a rereleased of a biography coming out soon about Christie that I can't wait to read. 

"Secret Adversary" is flawed, but I enjoyed it. The plot gets down right ridiculous after a while and there's way too many coincidences to make the story work, but Tommy and Tuppence are great partners and it makes me think that this is what I wanted "The Thin Man" to be more like. 

The characters of Tommy and Tuppence were fun. They were weirdly apart for most of the book, but still were totally in each other's corners. I did laugh at Christie saying how Tommy isn't attractive and Tuppence was just okay. And it's even said many times that Tommy is not that smart. She does love disparaging her creations, it's kind of funny to read a book where the main characters are not beautiful and the smartest things ever. 

The secondary characters were sketched with broad strokes. We get a millionaire American that I felt was just a walking talking stereotype of an American. We get mysterious women and a mysterious man hell bent on wrecking England. I had a hard time swallowing this storyline in The Big Four and didn't buy it here either. 

The writing takes a bit to get used to, but I didn't find it hard to understand the dialogue between characters. The flow didn't work though. Some scenes felt endless. 

The setting of post war England shows that not everything is coming up roses. Tommy and Tuppence are both struggling to make ends meet and there frank conversation about marrying for money was funny, but also realistic.

The ending was rather sweet I thought. You have Tommy and Tuppence setting off together in more ways than one. Going to read book number two soon. 

This book is available via public domain. I would say that the formatting drove me up the wall. I'm glad I got it for free, but now I'm wishing I just paid for a version. 

I liked it! Not the best Christie book, but I enjoyed Tommy and Tuppence a lot. Some of the plot made absolutely no sense, but I enjoyed the ride all the same.

Cool there's a reference to Japp in this one!

The dialogue is cracking me up too. I'm surprised Christie wrote this since her later books seemed to turn a dim view to young people (at least it read that way in the Poirot books).

I can read this for Horror Aficionados challenge too so that's two things I can knock off. 

Well this book is free, so if you want to read about how Dr. Watson first came to meet and live with Sherlock Holmes on Baker Street, here you go.

I actually thought that the character of Dr. Watson and Sherlock read as very young to me. Sherlock is so excited about things and Dr. Watson is a bit nonplussed at times with Sherlock. I liked that Sherlock doesn't talk down to Watson and that Watson gets a very clear idea early on that Sherlock is quite brilliant.

The first case this two work together "A Study in Scarlet" finds them going to a crime scene where a man is found dead with the word "Rache" on the wall. With Scotland Yard trying to solve the case, Sherlock steps in and shows how to properly deduce the guilty parties. 

I enjoyed Watson and Sherlock in this one. Even though I saw some hints of Sherlock not being overly impressed with the deductions made by Scotland Yard, it wasn't written as nasty. 

The story falls a part a bit in my opinion when Doyle takes the action to Salt Lake City (the Mormon community). I seriously was confused for a couple of minutes and actually wondered if I had gotten the wrong book and just kept reading. That whole segue ruined the flow of the book. It just felt like we got a random information dump in the middle of the book that does not quite work. 

The solution felt a little too elaborate for me. Reading this after "Murder on the Orient Express" was probably a bad idea. Christie does a better job of setting up her mysteries I think than Doyle does. 

I read this for Kill Your Darlings and Horror Aficionados Public Domain Challenge. 

Welp finished "A Study in Scarlet" the parts taking place in America slowed the book down though. Did love the introduction of Dr. Watson to Sherlock Holmes.

I also read this for Horror Aficionados too.