The Man in the Brown Suit

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir, John Lee

Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

When the recently orphaned Anne Beddingfield moves to London to live with her late father’s solicitor and his wife, she is ready for adventure to find her, and find her it most certainly does.

While waiting for the Tube after a failed job interview, Anne witnesses a man fall off the Underground platform onto the rails. The police determine the man’s death to be “accidental”. But the examining doctor fortuitously leaves behind a rather curious note on his way out of the station, and Anne makes the life-altering decision to investigate this “accidental” death on her own. Suddenly, Anne finds herself ensnared in a dangerous plot involving missing diamonds, a murdered ballerina, and even an attempt on her own life.

The Man in the Brown Suit also features the first appearance of Colonel Race, a friend of Agatha Christie’s famous Detective Hercule Poirot, and an excellent investigator in his own right. To save herself and solve this mystery, Anne must work with Colonel Race and journey all the way to Africa. Together, they are determined to crack the case and unmask the killer, an international criminal mastermind known only as “the Colonel”, once and for all.

Public Domain (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

The Man in the Brown Suit

Loved the story and Ms. Christie’s style of everything working out in the end. I would recommend this book.

Excellent Mystery, Even Though Rather Predictable

I love a good mystery, especially a good murder mystery, and this is one such book. It weaves and meanders its way through many false or misleading paths, all of which add to the intrigue. But in this particular story, Agatha introduces her antagonist early on and, throughout the tale, that person always appears to be the "least likely" suspect, which usually means that he or she is, in fact, the true antagonist. I will admit that there were many suggestions that others might be the ultimate mastermind behind the conspiracy, but the true conspirator in this book was always at the top of my list as "the bad guy". Listen and see if you don't agree with me.

Excellent performances by the narrators

Great characterizations by the narrators. I couldn’t wait to get back to it. And of course the plot kept me guessing to the end.

Excellent dual narration

Exquisite production with respect for Christie's work! This was such a fun listen. Not the usual body-in-the-library Christie; more thriller like. I enjoyed it throughly. Lovely treatment by female narrator, with fabulous John Lee popping in to do the featured bits. Nothing beats Christie's character development.

A New Adventure

This story introduces a new sleuth. A totally different story from Poirot and Miss Marple.

Excellent performance!

_ The Man in the Brown Suit_ by Agatha Christie recieves five stars from me. I loved this book, but I struggle with: was it the writing or the performance?

The performances: Both readers were excellent and have very interesting voices. However, Gabrielle de Cuir's performance captivated me the most. She brought the character to life. I think her variety of voices was excellent. But I"m thinking, that it was her rhythms, her infections, her overall reading that really just made it for me. I loved it!

John Lee did an excellent interpretation of his character as well. I liked, especially, his voice for Pagett. It fit that guy so well. His interpretation of Pedler was also spot on.

Overall, the casting for this reading hit the mark!

The writing. I believe that Christie's writing was fantastic. In the end, I believe without her good writing, the readers would not have been able to do their job so well. There were times, and please don't ask me to remember, I would think--this is when I think mysteries can be high brow literature. Some of her sentences were beautifully written, some of her descriptions lovely.

The story is also good. One thing I enjoyed was a kind of every changing object, every changing goal--so it's a murder mystery, then a theft, then who is really who. The murder was central but by solving other aspects, other goals, the murderer appears.

This is not a Marple or Poirot. The sleuth is Anne Beddingfield. She was a delight. Strong, independent, longs for adventure and goes and gets it. She's obviously a different kind of sleuth from Poirot, who is a private detective. Anne is different from Mrs. Marple, who I have no clue how she has money, what she did as a young lady. I have always suspected that Marple worked in espionage at one time. Anne is not either of those. She's the daughter of a famous anthropologist (famous in his circles) but not wealthy. She's clever but not like Poirot or Marple. Anne needs to discuss her ideas with her confidant to a larger extent than the other two. I found her character really refreshing. At times I was nervous for her as she stepped into danger. And I worried about her differently than I worry about Marple when she sneaks around and one thinks she might be caught. Marple has some experience, which Anne doesn't. And this made Anne more vulnerable and interesting.

Recommended: I recommend both the book and this audio version of it.

Great book -- I didn't want to stop listening

I've been an Agatha Christie fan for 50 years, but somehow missed this one. The two narrators keep the story line interesting by delivering the story from different points of view. Several characters have secrets to hide and change identities. Colonel Race is introduced, but he is not the main character. Descriptions of life on board a cruise ship to South Africa a century ago is interesting.

Narrators we’re annoyingly affected

The way the narrators affected their voices for the characters made them all unlikeable. I understand the need to do some variation in the voices in order to tell the characters apart but it was just too much and I found myself disliking almost everyone. I think if I had just read it I would’ve enjoyed myself a lot more.

That said, it was a fun AC plot and I liked it as I have everything else of hers so far.

Couldn’t finish it

Too convoluted and contrived for me. Got most of the way through but with about an hour and a half to go, I just gave up. I didn’t buy any of it so I didn’t even care.

This Gives Me No Pleasure

Because of the theme of this book I listen to through to the end I am very sorry to say I cannot give it a good review because the narration was damn near impossible to stand. Over dramatized and nearly comical I almost ruined the plot.