Another day, another book review. Perhaps you feel there are too many Agatha reviews here. But this is not one of the Poirot or Marple series, but an adventurous mystery book in its own category.
Plot summary
Anne is left orphaned and almost penniless when her eccentric father dies. While temporarily staying with the family lawyer, she comes across a mystery involving lost diamonds, deepest Africa and are rather swashbuckling gentleman. Ever effervescent, Anne throws herself into the hunt. But has the young adventuress bitten off more than she can chew?
This is not your average Agatha
I have a feeling that in The Man in the Brown Suit, Agatha was indulging herself a little. She wanted to write a romantic adventure, such as she might enjoy herself. So she did. I suppose that is one of the perks of being a famous author.
This is perhaps the closest thing I’ve seen from her to an out and out romance novel. It does, of course, contain plenty of adventure and a good dose of classic mystery. But there is definitely a strong flavour of the romance novel to this one. However, because it wasn’t trying to be a detective novel, like The Big Four, I still enjoyed it. Until this one little bit near the end…
My qualm with this book is the rather violent expression of love. No, not passionate scenes. Literal threat of violence. The male love interest at one point tells the heroine that he would ‘beat her black and blue’ if she ever dared to marry anyone other than himself. If Anne and I were buddies, I would be telling her to head for the hills rather than marry someone given to such violent outbursts. You might consider it exciting at the start, but I guarantee you that domestic violence is no recipe for domestic bliss. It was rather a disappointing end to a book that, otherwise, had been quite enjoyable.
If you can overlook this particular aspect, The Man in the Brown Suit is a decent adventure-mystery. But certainly not your average Agatha. And I’m still not sure if that was a good thing.
