The Man in the Brown Suit
Ratings48
Average rating3.6
Newly-orphaned Anne Beddingfeld is a nice English girl looking for a bit of adventure in London. But she stumbles upon more than she bargained for! Anne is on the platform at Hyde Park Corner tube station when a man falls onto the live track, dying instantly. A doctor examines the man, pronounces him dead, and leaves, dropping a note on his way. Anne picks up the note, which reads "17.1 22 Kilmorden Castle". The next day the newspapers report that a beautiful ballet dancer has been found dead there-- brutally strangled. A fabulous fortune in diamonds has vanished. And now, aboard the luxury liner Kilmorden Castle, mysterious strangers pillage her cabin and try to strangle her. What are they looking for? Why should they want her dead? Lovely Anne is the last person on earth suited to solve this mystery... and the only one who can! Anne's journey to unravel the mystery takes her as far afield as Africa and the tension mounts with every step... and Anne finds herself struggling to unmask a faceless killer known only as 'The Colonel'....
Series
Featured Series
4 primary booksColonel Race
Colonel Race is a 4-book series with 4 primary works first released in 1924 with contributions by Agatha Christie.
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Enjoyed this book thoroughly, primarily due to the frolicking and engaging narrative voices of both protagonist Anne Beddingfield and secondary character, Sir Eustace Pedlar. Sometimes the adventure got a little too out of hand and I started to lose track of exactly which African city were our characters in now, or heading towards, but it didn't take away anything from the mystery and the plot.
This was pretty good! I read this before in probably middle school, so didn't remember anything. I think I confused it with They Came To Baghdad, too, because I was thinking it was middle eastern, not African. Anyhow.
This was a fun story. Very twisty and lots of happening to be in the right place at the right time. Anne is a fun character to be in the head of.
There's, of course, some sexism and racism since it's from 1924 and a lot takes place in South Africa, Botswana, and Rhodesia (they go to Rhodes' grave...). But it's not terrible all things considered.
I'm not satisfied with how it went. Seemed rather thrown together and not well plotted at all. I'll stick to Hercule Poirot from now on.
