N or M? by Agatha Christie: A Re-read from Audiobook

🕵️‍♂️🕵️‍♀️ N or M? brings us back to the lovely detective couple: Tommy and Tuppence. We left them more than twenty years ago during WW1 in The Secret Adversary, and meet them again on the outbreak of another war, WW2. They are in middle age now, have married with three grown up children, who either serve in the war or in intelligent, and in what we call as 'mid-life crisis'. They wish to be actively involved in the intelligent world, full of action and danger, like they used to do brilliantly in the previous war.

🕵️‍♂️🕵️‍♀️ And their wish came true! A British secret agent approached Tommy, asked him to go undercover to a hotel in the seaside Leahampton called Sans Souci, which was believed to be the camp of German spies and fifth columnists. They were male and female, whose initial were N and M. Tommy was selected because he has long retired from service, and therefore was unknown in the intelligent world. He was to depart secretly alone without Tuppence, though.

🕵️‍♂️🕵️‍♀️ Of course Tuppence anticipated this, and went undercover herself anyway to Sans Souci to meet the astonished Tommy. We can't expect Tommy to counter-spying alone, right? Since Tuppence was always the brain of the two. So they stayed at Sans Souci as two strangers, old ordinary widowers.

🕵️‍♂️🕵️‍♀️ They soon found out that the other residents seemed to be a group of harmless ordinary British middle classes. There was even cute little Betty Sprout, a 3 y.o. precocious child with her blubbering of "goosie goosie gander", which add to the inoffensiveness of the group. It's hard to believe that two German spies were among them. But they were!

🕵️‍♂️🕵️‍♀️ Things soon got out of control. First someone's sneaked to Tuppence's bedroom, then Tommy inadvertently revealed the spy's identity, leading up to his disappearance. It's up to Tuppence now, along with their old friend Albert who came to help, to solve the mystery and rescue Tommy.

🕵️‍♂️🕵️‍♀️ I didn't remember N or M? to be this fun. I guess because I have come to middle age along with them, that this story felt more relevant than before. At this phase, I prefer this one more than The Secret Adversary. It felt more real, more down to earth, and dealt more with human psychological side.

Rating: 4,5 / 5