The Man in the Brown Suit

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  • Novel
  • 1924

Pretty, young Anne Beddingfeld has come to London looking for adventure. But adventure finds her when a strange-smelling man falls off an Underground platform and is electrocuted on the rails. The police verdict is accidental death. But who was the man in the brown suit who examined the body before running away? Armed with only one cryptic clue, Anne is determined to track him down and bring the mysterious killer to justice.

It is really a hard life. Men will not be nice to you if you are not good-looking, and women will not be nice to you if you are.

Agatha Christie, The Man in the Brown Suit

More about this story

Drafted and partly inspired by the Christies' Grand Tour of the British Commonwealth, The Man in the Brown Suit was written in her flat in Earl's Court with Agatha Christie evoking exotic African landscapes from memory.

The story features an appearance from Secret Service agent Colonel Race who assists the heroine, and would appear in three further novels: Cards on the Table, Death on the Nile and Sparkling Cyanide. Having been asked by her first husband's rather demanding boss, Major Belcher, to be included in her next novel, he formed the basis for Sir Eustace Pedlar. "I suddenly found that the book was becoming rather fun to write. I only hoped The Bodley Head would approve of it."

The book, like all Miss Christie's work, is written with spirit and humour.
The Observer

Published in 1924 by The Bodley Head, the novel was first serialised in The Evening News under the title Anna, the Adventurous.

The story was adapted for television by CBS in 1988, and featured Edward Woodward, Tony Randall, Rue McClanahan and Ken Howard in major roles. The film updated the setting and characters to a contemporary period. The graphic novel was first published in France in 2005 and later translated to English and released in the UK and Canada.

Did you know?

  1. The £500 Agatha Christie received for the first publication of this story paid for her first car - a grey bottle-nosed Morris Cowley.

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