The Secret Adversary

This was Agatha Christie’s second novel. It introduces the characters of Tommy and Tuppence, who feature in three other novels and in short stories. Young friends Tommy Beresford and Prudence “Tuppence” Cowley find themselves out of work and money after WWI. As the “Young Adventurers” they are charged with finding a passenger who survived the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 with a draft treaty that could be dangerous in the wrong hands. They soon discover they are competing with “Mr. Brown,” a dangerous secret adversary who will do anything to find the missing treaty and put it to evil use.