My Favorite Books

The Walking Drum
Ender's Game
Dune
Jhereg
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Curse of Chalion
The Name of the Wind
Chronicles of the Black Company
The Faded Sun Trilogy
The Tar-Aiym Krang

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Review: The Secret Adversary

The Secret Adversary The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Performance: ****
Story: ***

A Fun Mystery From a Master

A solid 7+ hour narration for a decent cast of characters involved in a mystery along with a dash of political espionage. This is my first read of the Tommy and Tuppence Mysteries and I very much enjoyed the young protagonists as they are drawn into a growing plot to topple governments following the First World War. The key hinges on finding a young American woman who disappeared in London after surviving the sinking of the Lusitania. Like most in the genre, the plot at the center of everything was a bit of a stretch, but didn’t detract so much that I could not enjoy the story. As T & T stumble toward revealing the secret plot being directed by a mysterious Mr Brown, you get the typical reversals of fortune, red herrings, and surprising betrayals (if you aren’t paying attention … there are enough clues to guess a fair amount before it was revealed). All in all … although some may find this one of the weaker mysteries from Agatha Christie, the audible performance pulls it up to be a fun introduction.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#TheSecretAdversary #FreeAudiobookCodes
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My Ratings Explained ...

  • [ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
  • [ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
  • [ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
  • [ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
  • [ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.