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They are Partners in Crime.
Who are Tommy and Tuppence Beresford?
Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are the two most famous fictional detectives of Dame Agatha Christie (here is the full Agatha Christie reading order). But she’s also behind Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, a couple of Secret agents/Private detectives in search of adventure and money.
Tuppence is a charismatic, impulsive, and intuitive person. She’s the most clever of the two. Tommy is less imaginative, but it’s also difficult to “blind his eyes to the facts.”
Unlike most Christie detectives, Tommy and Tuppence aged in time with the real world, making the first appearance in the twenties as a young couple and their last in the seventies, having raised three children.
Tommy and Tuppence Beresford Books in Order:
You can read the Tommy and Tuppence Beresford series in order, or not. In fact, you can just pick one up and read it, they work as standalone.
- The Secret Adversary — Tommy and Tuppence, two young people short of money and restless for excitement, embark on a daring business scheme – Young Adventurers Ltd. Their advertisement says they are ‘willing to do anything, go anywhere.’ But their first assignment, for the sinister Mr. Whittington, plunges them into more danger than they ever imagined.
- Partners in Crime (short story collection) — Tommy and Tuppence Beresford were restless for adventure, so when they were asked to take over Blunt’s International Detective Agency, they leaped at the chance. After their triumphant recovery of a pink pearl, intriguing cases kept on coming their way: a stabbing on Sunningdale golf course; cryptic messages in the personal columns of newspapers; and even a box of poisoned chocolates.
- N or M? — It is World War II, and while the RAF struggles to keep the Luftwaffe at bay, Britain faces an even more sinister threat from ‘the enemy within’ – Nazis posing as ordinary citizens. With pressure mounting, the Intelligence service appoints two unlikely spies, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. Their mission: to seek out a man and a woman from among the colorful guests at Sans Souci, a seaside hotel. But this assignment is no stroll along the promenade. After all, N and M have just murdered Britain’s finest agent.
- By the Pricking of My Thumbs — An old woman in a nursing home speaks of a child buried behind the fireplace… When Tommy and Tuppence visited an elderly aunt in her gothic nursing home, they thought nothing of her mistrust of the doctors; after all, Ada was a very difficult old lady. But when Mrs. Lockett mentioned a poisoned mushroom stew and Mrs. Lancaster talked about ‘something behind the fireplace’, Tommy and Tuppence found themselves caught up in an unexpected adventure involving possible black magic…
- Postern of Fate — Tommy and Tuppence Beresford have just become the proud owners of an old house in an English village. Along with the property, they have inherited some worthless bric-a-brac, including a collection of antique books. While rustling through a copy of The Black Arrow, Tuppence comes upon a series of apparently random underlinings. However, when she writes down the letters, they spell out a very disturbing message: M a r y – J o r d a n – d i d – n o t – d i e – n a t u r a l l y… And sixty years after their first murder, Mary Jordan’s enemies are still ready to kill.
If you like our article about the Tommy and Tuppence Beresford series in order, don’t forget to bookmark it! You may also be interested in Charlotte and Thomas Pitt, The Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus Series…