The Man in the Brown Suit

By Agatha Christie

A young woman investigates an accidental death at a London tube station, and finds herself of a ship bound for South Africa…

Pretty, young Anne came to London looking for adventure. In fact, adventure comes looking for her – and finds her immediately at Hyde Park Corner tube station. Anne is present on the platform when a thin man, reeking of mothballs, loses his balance and is electocuted on the rails.

The Scotland Yard verdict is accidental death. But Anne is not satisfied.

After all, who was the man in the brown suit who examined the body? And why did he race off, leaving a cryptic message behind: ‘17-122 Kilmorden Castle’?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Oct 14, 2010
• ISBN: 9780007422449

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.

Reviews for The Man in the Brown Suit

[eadieb-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ann Beddingfield saw a stranger fall to death on the rails of the Underground. A doctor in a brown suit pronounced him dead and vanished into a crowd. A link to a famous ballerina murder, a fortune in diamonds and blackmail leads to an attempt on Anne's life. An isolated mansion holds the solution to the bizarre mystery for this young sleuth. Another great classic from the Queen of Crime!

[therebelprince · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

From London to South Africa, a young Englishwoman – eager for adventure – follows a trail of strange clues, only to find herself in a web of theft, lies and political intrigue.

One of Christie’s first novels, "The Man in the Brown Suit" is clearly in the thriller genre, and – like almost all of her thrillers – it ultimately becomes a morass of spy-story ideas that don’t quite gel together. However, unlike most of them, this book is attractive and engaging, with an enjoyable heroine in Anne Beddingfield, and a solid supporting turn by Colonel Race, who would later lead the cast of "Sparkling Cyanide" before returning for two superlative Poirot novels.

[mrsrk-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love Agatha Christie and this book is not an exception! Miss Beddingfield's narrative is witty and very funny. Another enjoyable read. (Pity the movie made of it, with Stephany Zimbalist as Miss Beddingfield, diverged so much from the original story.)

[figgles_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An early thriller from Agatha Christie - channeling the "Perils of Pauline" our heroine, fortuitously orphaned and penniless sets out in search of adventure and love and finds both in South Africa. Reads well for a light read though some of the casual racism (I've only recently realised that "Kaffir Boy" doesn't refer to a child) doesn't sit well with a modern audience. The heroine is feisty with a strong sense of self and I don't buy that her captulation to the hero (with all the "you're my woman / I'm your man" maundering is in character, she does capitulate but only because she wants to...

[auntie0nanuuq · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A young woman semi-witnesses a man back-up, stumble, & fall under a train.... She tells the police, that the man had a surprised look on his face as if he'd seen someone/something that frightened him.She also watches a man in a brown suit acting as a doctor examine him and pronounce him dead.... He "doctor" hurriedly walks away, but not before dropping a piece of paper out of his pocket..... A clue which she decides to follow up on.She is led to a house on the market, owned by a "colonel",there upon a strangled woman, and the young man who has found the dead woman....The young woman goes to the local paper w/ her information & convinces the editor to give her a chance at investigative journalism, which leads her further into danger (ridiculous situations) and eventually a fine romance and a prime job.

[jimgysin_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In another early Christie outing, we get yet another effort that is as much a thriller as it is a detective story or mystery. It's the only canon appearance of Anne Beddingfield, a young English woman who, after her father's death, gives in to her desire to seek adventure. In her case, it starts with a death in a London tube station and leads her to South Africa and a diamond caper. It's also the earliest appearance of Colonel Race, whose interest in Beddingfield is not reciprocated. He gets over it, though, and goes on to become pals with a guy named Hercule Poirot.

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A newly orphaned young woman, Anne Beddingfield, heads off to make her way in the world and finds herself embroiled in the midst of an unexpected adventure. Anne is spunky, if a bit too naïve and reminded me a bit of Catherine in Northanger Abbey. Anne’s read too many mystery novels (as opposed to Catherine’s penchant for gothic novels) and sees a bit of mystery in everything. I wasn’t thrilled with this one. I won’t get into the plot too much, except to say Anne witnesses a death, meets lots of people and ends up falling in love. It was nothing to keep you up at night flipping pages, which is kinda what I want from a mystery. It was less creepy goodness and more whodunit with a dollop of romance. It’s not a bad book, just a light entertaining read. It’s not quite up to par with some of Christie’s darker murder mysteries, like my favorite, And Then There Were None. I’d skip this one and pick up a different Christie instead.  

[mahallett · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

i read this when i was 12 and liked it. now it seems really stupid. after finishing it at 12 and loving it (it was my first adult mystery), i lent it to a friend whose mother wouldn't let her read it because of the cover--a woman in a strapless dress being pursued to cliff side by a man in a brown suit(to the best of my memory 50 years later). i can remember my mother saying " has she never heard of agatha christie?".

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting plot and a few familiar characters, but no Poirot or Marple!

[nx74defiant · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I like Ann. The point of view is sometimes from Anne. Sometimes we are getting the diary of Sir Eutace Peddler. It is full of false identities. Many people are not who they appear to be.

[skayw-655209 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A book by Agatha Christie I hadn’t read yet! Similar to her Tommy and Tuppence books in theme. More adventure/thriller than mystery but thoroughly enjoyable.

[amphipodgirl · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Enh. I don't like Christie in "spy thriller" mode as much as in mystery mode – although this did have a mystery, with an interesting solution – and the sexual politics in this one just flat out revolt me. And it is of it today and of its social class in its discussion of Rhodesia in the 1920s. Since it's counted as part of a "Colonel Race" series, and I really liked Cards on the Table, I had hoped to like this better than I did.

[mstrust · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Soon after the death of her anthropologist father, young Anne Beddingfeld witnesses the accidental death of a stranger in the tube station. She also realizes that the doctor who pushes his way into the crowd to examine the dead man doesn't seem to know anything about basic anatomy, which makes Anne follow the fraud and starts her adventure. Determined to prove that she had witnessed a crime of some kind, Anne boards a ship for South Africa, which is on the brink of revolution. Aboard, she becomes friends with a famous socialite, meets Member of Parliament Sir Eustace Pedlar and his three secretaries, Secret Service man Colonel Race, and falls in love with a wanted criminal.This is one of Christie's most fun and most active. Anne's thirst for adventure has her fighting, falling down cliffs, being chased through the city and receiving proposals. If you want to sample a Christie that is not her typical English locked room mystery, this is a good one.

[crashmyparty · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Always enjoy an Agatha Christie mystery! Thought Anne Beddingfield was a fantastic heroine, can't wait to read the Miss Marple books and the other books narrated by a female.

[cassandra2020 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Typical Agatha Christie. Set in the 1920s it's full of 'plucky girls' and 'rugged, handsome men'. All very dated now, but typical of the period.

This is neither a Poirot, Marple nor Tommy & Tuppence novel, but a standalone story and zips along at the usual sort of pace. Some of the clues are obvious, some less so and there's a dusting of romance in there that you don't usually get with her novels.

It was a quick easy read, which is what I was looking for, but I suspect I'm getting a little jaded with all the Agatha Christies and will need to give them a rest for a while.

[nmhale_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Along with her popular private detective series, and her stand-alone mysteries, Christie also wrote a number of books that are a blend of mystery and espionage story. The Man in the Brown Suit is an example of this type of Christie story. Ann Beddingfeld becomes entangled in danger and secrets, an adventure which she eagerly pursues. She witnesses a man fall on the live track at the train station, which instantly kills him. A doctor happens to be on hand to examine him. He drops a note as he is leaving the scene, and she snatches it. She can't decipher the note's strange message - 17.1 22 Kilmorden Castle - but she does notice that it smells like moth balls, just like the dead man did. The next day, Ann reads an article in the paper which reveals that a woman was just found dead at a house which was the same one as that on an ad in the dead man's pocket. The newspapers report that the only suspect is a young man in a brown suit.Ann knows that these two events are connected, and something bigger is underfoot.

[sueincyprus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

More a thriller than a usual Agatha Christie whodunit. Rather a large cast, making the plot a bit complex - but cleverly written, as ever, with satisfactory ending.

[jguidry-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another classic mystery from Dame Agatha. I loved her wit and humor placed in this one. My favorite character and point of view in the story was Sir Eustace Pedlar. He played the stereotypical bumbling English gentleman, but you could always tell there was some intelligence there behind it. I listened to the audio performance, and I must admit I think the narrator helped the story along. She seemed to know each character and knew how to portray them emotionally even if she couldn't quite get them voice-wise.

[nsenger-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Man in the Brown Suit is a mystery novel, but it also reads like a grand adventure. There's a murder to be solved for sure, but there's also espionage, a perilous sea voyage, diamond smuggling, kidnapping, a journey across Africa, and romance. Looking back, I'm amazed at how much Agatha Christie was able to fit into the novel. And yet, it didn't seemed forced or crammed in.Here's how the publisher describes the book:Pretty, young Anne came to London looking for adventure. In fact, adventure comes looking for her—and finds her immediately at Hyde Park Corner tube station. Anne is present on the platform when a thin man, reeking of mothballs, loses his balance and is electrocuted on the rails.The Scotland Yard verdict is accidental death. But Anne is not satisfied. After all, who was the man in the brown suit who examined the body? And why did he race off, leaving a cryptic message behind: "17-122 Kilmorden Castle"?Of all the Agatha Christie books I've read, this is by far the most adventurous. Anne Beddingfield is a fun character to follow, and the plot has several twists that took me by surprise. Another solid story from the Mistress of Mystery.

[bnielsen_30 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

London, januar 1922.Prolog:En superskurk kaldet "Oberst" er ved at trække sig tilbage. Inden krigen (= 1. verdenskrig) og under den har han styret diverse kriminalitet og spionage. En af hans medarbejdere, Nadina, har spillet ham et puds med nogle uslebne diamanter og vil nu indkassere gevinsten.Selve handlingen:Anne Beddingfield er datter af en professor, der er berømt, men kun næsten solvent. Han dør og hun er forældreløs, men har ben i næsen og beslutter at hvis hun opsøger eventyret, så vil det nok møde hende på halvvejen!.Hun overværer tilfældigt en ulykke, hvor en mand falder ned på de elektriske skinner i undergrunden og bliver dræbt. En "læge" i brunt tøj kommer til og undersøger liget, men forsvinder, da der kommer politi. I skyndingen taber han en seddel som Anne samler op. Hun satser alle sine penge på at forfølge sporet og havner på et skib Kilmorden Castle på vej mod Sydafrika. Kort tid efter togulykken blev en ung kvinde fundet kvalt og også dette dødsfald er forbundet til nogle af passagererne ombord. Anne klistrer sig på en Sir Eustace Pedler, der har to sekretærer med på sin rejse til Rhodesia, Guy Pagett, der ligner en giftmorder og en Harry Rayburn, der måske er prakket ham på af udenrigsministeriet, der har givet ham et brev med til general Jan Smuts, premierministeren i Sydafrika.Anne finder ud af at Rayburn er "manden i brunt tøj", men holder mund med det for hun er blevet glødende forelsket i ham. Hun bliver bedste veninde med Suzanne Blair og de to tilsammen regner meget ud og får resten foræret af tilfældet. Fx dumper en pose diamanter ned på Suzanne midt om natten, fordi hun har byttet kahyt med en anden.En farefuld togfærd starter med at Anne med nød og næppe når toget på trods af at nogen først har forsøgt at kvæle hende på skibet og siden spærre hende inde. Hun lokkes væk fra toget og falder ud over en skrænt. Rayburn - som vi i mellemtiden har fundet ud af sikkert hedder Harry Lucas og sammen med en kammerat gik i en fælde stillet af obersten og kun lige undgik en fængselsdom for diamanttyveri - dukker op og redder hende.Mere en thriller end en krimi. og ikke nogen god bog, men det er så også kun den fjerde publicerede Agatha Christie roman, så det er ok at den er ret ufriseret, har en utroværdig dialog og at plottet har nogle huller.Anne afslører at Sir Eustace Pedler er "obersten" og han bliver fængslet, men undslipper og sender Anne et brev, hvor hun ønskes held og lykke. Pagett afslører at han har kone og børn, hvilket han har holdt hemmeligt for sin arbejdsgiver, Pedler. På et tidspunkt, hvor Pagett burde have været i Florence, var han i stedet ved konen og han og Pedler så tilfældigvis hinanden. Pagett syntes det var pinligt og holdt mund med det. Pedler var mere bekymret, for det ville ødelægge hans alibi for mordet på Nadina, hvis det kom frem. Rayburn alias Harry Lucas har også en hemmelighed. Han er Laurence Earlsfield og overtog Harry Lucas's identitet, da denne blev dræbt i første verdenskrig. Anne tør dog godt gifte sig med ham selv om han er adelig og rig. Oberst Race har arvet i Laurence's sted, da alle troede at Laurence var død, men både Race og Laurence er godt tilfredse med den ordning for indeværende, så Laurence og Anne venter med at flytte til London.

[olivermagnus · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Man in the Brown Suit begins with Anne Beddingfeld, the daughter of a professor who longs for adventure. She spends her day trying to avoid creditors and longing to meet a nice young man. When her father dies, she takes an opportunity to go to London, where she witnesses the death of a man. Finding a piece of paper dropped at the scene, she believes the death to be linked to that of the murder of a young woman at the house of Sir Eustace Pedlar. With only eighty five pounds to her name, her deductions ignored by the police, she boards a ship bound for South Africa. On board she meets not only Sir Eustace Pedlar but his secretary Guy Pagett, society beauty Suzanne Blair, the enigmatic Colonel Race and the attractive Harry Rayburn. If she can find out who the man in the brown suit is, seen leaving Sir Pedlar's house shortly after the murder, she hopes for a job as a journalist.

The story starts off at a slow pace, but it builds momentum with multiple deaths, stolen jewels, an old injustice, and kidnappings. Published in 1924 it was actually written in serialized form as “Anne the Adventuress”. I'm not a huge Christie fan but I did enjoy the quirky characters, lively dialogue and entertaining adventure story.

Overall, The Man in the Brown Suit is not the greatest mystery book, nor the greatest Agatha Christie book. It is, however, a very enjoyable addition to her highly acclaimed body of work and any Christie fan is bound to enjoy it.

[antiquary_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

French translation of The Man in the Brown Suit. See review there. This previously belonged to y parents, probably my mother who ha taught French and read it fluently. I read it less fluently.

[condorena · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the first non series that Christie wrote. Published in 1924 it takes place in 1920. A feisty young girl raised in a sheltered way catering to her scholarly father has the whole world before her after her father dies but she has made no plans until she is present at the death of a man who falls on the third rail in the subway. A man in a brown suit claiming to be a doctor tries to resuscitate the man but rushes off dropping a mysterious piece of paper.

Our heroine Anne Beddingfeld grabs the piece of paper and starts on an adventure of a lifetime.
Anne is an unusual girl for the era in someways because she is educated, fearless and intrepid. On the other hand she longs for romance and all the things others girls of the time want. A man, family and a home.

[breakerfallen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good book by Christie that doesn't fit what became her traditional formula. It alternates well between a first person account by Anne and the journal/diary of Sir Edgar. There is even a little love-interest typically absent in novels Christie wrote under her own name.

[mmyoung_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is Christie’s fourth published book and one can see a rabid maturation of her writing technique. After returning, in her third book, to a story built around a detective, she goes back in this book to the “romp” style of her second book. This time, however, the romp is executed with much more panache than in the first case. The Man in the Brown Suit has a plot as contrived and coincidence strewn as The Secret Adversary but is more dependent on the cliches and tropes of literature than those of films imported from the United States. At the same time the book is paced more like a movie than was TSA with changes of venue and actions sequences to distract the reader from paying too much attention to the actual plot. Christie also manages to make the “real” villain amusing and likeable which means that even the many readers who twig to what is going on fairly early in the game will still find the story a fun ride.It is also interesting to see a book in which the woman is clearly an “action" protagonist not someone wracked by sensibility. Yes, Anne’s life is saved more than once by the mysterious man to whom she is attracted, but Anne also plays an important role in saving his life. And though he may be stronger and land a meaner punch one ends the book with the suspicion that she is the smarter of the two--and that she knows it. It is also enjoyable to find a book which shows two smart women enjoying a real friendship not based on their common relationship to a man.

[mrsplum_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This isn't a great book in literary terms, and Agatha Christie certainly wrote better, more mature works. Nonetheless, this is one of my favourites. I like to think of it as the 'mashed potato of novels; it makes me feel good, especially when I'm a little under the weather.

[musicmom41 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is unlike any Agatha Christie I have ever read. It is a variation of the “damsel in distress” stories that I used to devour in my younger years—early [[Mary Stewart]] and Victoria Holt come to mind. It features a young and plucky heroine with intelligence who doesn’t always stop to think before rushing in where even fools would fear to tread. It is written in an interesting style with two POVs. I was pretty sure who the “villain” was fairly early on and certain of my conclusion well before the end, but there were enough other questions to be answered to keep me interested and two real surprises. It was a perfect “light” read when I was feeling puny. Recommended for fans of the genre.

[smik_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This Agatha Christie's 4th novel, and as she did in the first 3, you can see her experimenting with a different style of murder mystery.In the Prologue, in the dressing room of a Russian dancer in Paris, through a meeting she has with another Russian, we learn 3 things. Firstly neither of them are Russian. Secondly they have both been working for an arch criminal who is on the point of retirement. The "Colonel" has, even during the First World War, organised a series of "stupendous" coups including jewel robberies, forgery, espionage, assassination, and sabotage. Thirdly we learn the story of the theft of some South American diamonds before the war. The dancer knows where these diamonds are and intends to exchange them for some of the "Colonel's" accumulated wealth.THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT is narrated by two characters. The first, whom we meet in Chapter 1, is Anne Beddingfield. It is she who witnesses the death of a strange-smelling man when he falls off an Underground platform and is electrocuted on the rails. She also sees a man dressed in a brown suit who pretends to be doctor, inspects the body and pronounces the man dead, and then rushes away, dropping a scrap of paper with a cryptic message on it as he does so.The second narrator is Sir Eustace Pedler MP who keeps a diary. We begin reading extracts from his diary in chapter 8. Inevitably the paths of the two narrators converge. A young woman dies in a house that Sir Eustace owns called Mill House, and he is forced to return from abroad. He is then asked by the British government to travel to South Africa, where he has business interests, to deliver a message in person to the government of Rhodesia.After that the setting, with all the characters we've met so far, and a few more besides, moves to a ship going to South Africa, and then the action moves to South Africa itself.I have my reservations about THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT.I think Agatha Christie tried to move from a murder mystery to a thriller with connections to the world of organised crime, unionism, espionage and romance. The result is a longer book with a lot of time lapses in it, caused mainly by the distances between locations, and the nature of what happens to the first narrator Anne Beddingfield. Some of the scenarios don't quite work and the result is confusion rather than a genuine puzzle for the reader to solv.Christie tried also to show her awareness of political events in South Africa, and we get occasional mentions of General Smuts thrown into the mix.And finally, it is a plot where definitions of good and bad are blurred, and in the long run evil goes unpunished.The book sees the first appearance of Colonel Race; he later appears in Cards on the Table, Sparkling Cyanide, and Death on the Nile.The Wikipedia entry gives a lot of plot details, reactions of reviewers at the time, including a comment about the fact that she had not used Hercule Poirot, but had in fact introduced another "detective" in the form of Colonel Race.

[bookangel_a · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What can you say in a review about Agatha Christie?? Of course I liked it. I like nearly everything she wrote. However, I did find this book to be different from some of her other books. Usually Christie springs the romance on you at the end of the book - suddenly these two people discover their love and decide to get married. However, in this book the romance goes through almost the entire plot. And of course there is always a dramatic twist at the end of a Christie story. In this book, though, the plot twists didn't surprise me so much. I kinda saw them coming. ;) I wasn't so sure if I liked the romance at the end or not. A part of me was hoping she would end up with a different man. But I enjoyed reading this, as I do all her writings.

[riverwillow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was directly inspried by an Empire Tour taken by Agatha and Arthur Christie, and colonial South Africa and Rhodesia take centre stage in the novel. Its also surpising that this was first published in 1924 as its heroine, Anne Beddingfield, is depicted as a modern, liberated, adventerous woman, who falls in love with a man who is best described as a combination of Heathcliff, Rochester and Darcy. This is an adventure story rather than a detective story and really is a ripping yarn.