The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

Second book of my solo book club in the bag … Let me tell you, it was a struggle! Synopsis first, review to follow.

Summary:

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.

Review (Spoilers below): 1/5 stars

Well, let me tell you, I have never wanted a book to end so quickly before. Who could have thought an Agatha Christie book could be so, so bad.

I started this book about a month ago on the tail end of my Florida trip. I wanted an easy beach-read, and mysteries usually do the trick. Unfortunately, this was not that. I’m not sure if it was the period in which this was written, or the subject matter, or the characters at large. It was just so hard for me to follow along.

The main character is an ingenue type. She was very much giving me Poor Things a la Emma Stone vibes. AKA - born sexy yesterday.

I do have to give the character some flack - this was written in 1924, there were not well-rounded female characters at the time. It wasn’t the historical setting that was a challenge, that’s a given, that’s just fact. For me it was the mindset this character had. I couldn’t relate. And I guess I shouldn’t. This fictional character lived a wild and adventurous life that a woman of 100 years ago could only dream of. It should be a good thing I can’t relate, in all honesty.

Overall, there was a real lack of character development. Characters were never discussed for more than a few pages in a chapter and weren’t discussed again for another 10 chapters. On top of that there were so many characters. (Keep reading for my thoughts on who should play who if this were made into a movie).

From a plot perspective you get the bulk of the premise from the first 10 chapters and the last. The middle pages were honestly just filler and really could have been edited down. I will say I was a bit surprised at the end - given the description and thoughts of the bumbling doctor character Sir Eustace Pedler I was not expecting him to be the Villan of the story. But that surprise did not forgive the first 200 pages.

I will say there were some interesting subplots, actually not even subplots, just general descriptors of the time that I want to learn more about. Mainly the diamond industry and De Beers. Yes, the same De Beers from the beloved How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Man, this company has been around for over 100 years and is probably, definitely, connected to some suspicious work practices.

With a quick google search I’ve found they currently own 30% of the worlds diamond mines, though Wikipedia says it ranges to 60% and they have had their fair share of controversy. Honestly, now I want to learn more about the history of the diamond industry. I may even change my overall score based on how much I’m learning about the Diamond Industry and the history in South Africa. (I won’t, but I’m actually that interested!).

In 2020, yes…. 100 years after this book was written, they declared they are committed to not using slave labor. If a company needs to declare this in 2020 there maaayyyyy be an issue.

Overall, the book to me was a fairy tale disguised as a mystery. Unfortunately, there was very little substance and I found myself more interested in the ancillary details (diamonds and revolutions) than the mystery at hand.

Movie Casting:

Now on to who I would cast if this was made into a movie.

Fun Fact: this was made into a TV movie in 1989 with Rue McClanahan of Golden Girls fame as Suzy Blair (fabulous casting if you ask me) and Tony Randall of the Odd Couple as Edward Chichester, another inspired casting.

My casting thoughts below:

Anne Beddingfield: Millie Bobby Brown

Eustace Pedler: Paul Giamatti

Harry Rayburn / Harry Lucas/ John Harold Eardsley: Theo James

Suzanne: Olivia Coleman

Guy Pagett: Nicholas Hoult

Reverend Edward Chichester/ Miss Pettigrew / Arthur Minks: Eddie Redmayne

There are 8 additional characters, but they are too minor to cast.

That’s a wrap on The Man in the Brown Suit. My next book will be: The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin.