October 2013 Guest Editor Linwood Barclay on The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie...
My introduction to the mystery genre was really the Hardy Boys, but my first real, honest-to-God crime novel for grownups (although I read it when I was around twelve) was this one by the Grand Dame of whodunits. While this was my first, it was far from my favourite. Around the age of eleven or twelve, I read And Then There Were None, and that one made my head spin. Christie came up with countless original plots that the rest of us have been ripping off and disguising as our own for decades.
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'?
