Celebrating Tommy and Tuppence

My contribution to the Agatha Christie blog tour celebrating the 120th anniversary of Agatha Christie's birth. Thank you for stopping by!

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The persistent tapping on the outer door of the office of the International Detective Agency caused an immediate flurry of activity. From behind one office door came a sudden wild staccato of typing, while from the other came the screeching wail of a violin in pain. Albert the office boy rolled his eyes as he carefully laid aside his spy thriller and wiped his fingers, sticky from sweets, before heading to the front door.

A couple of minutes later the typing ceased, and a small, neat head, topped with a shining bob of black hair, poked around the corner of the boss’ door. Red-haired Tommy had just put the violin back on the shelf and out of its misery. Now he obeyed his "secretary’s" beckoning hand and joined her to look through the small peepholes and into the outer office.

Tuppence too rolled her eyes. “You weren’t supposed to play the violin,” she hissed. “You know Albert likes to tell new clients that you’re on the phone with Scotland Yard.”

“Elementary, my dear Watson,” replied Tommy, stolid as ever. “But I don’t think it’s a new client this time.”

“No?” Tuppence stood on tip-toes, squinting. “Are you certain?”

“Pretty certain, my girl. I think it’s just the folks arriving for the blog tour.”

“For the what?” She raised her eyebrow.

“The blog tour. Oh, don’t look at me like that…I’ll be dashed if I can really explain the thing. We’re behind the times, you know, old girl!”

“I wonder….” Tuppence mused. “Are we really, Tommy? I mean, I know we’ve been around for a while now….but do characters like ourselves really go out of fashion?”

“Well…” Tommy critically appraised her outfit. “You’re certainly not dressed for the twenty-first century.”

“No,” Tuppence said slowly. “I suppose not. All the same, I find it rather comforting to know that there are people out there who still care. Who still know about us, Tommy, despite our age, and who think we’ve worn rather well. Because you know, they still read our books, don’t they? It’s not just all about Hercule and Jane, bless her…”

Tommy laughed. “Of course they’ve worn pretty well themselves, when you consider it.”

“Yes, but they had such good publicity! All those novels! All we ever got was four novels…four novels, Tommy! And a handful of short stories! Though I must admit,” Tuppence added with a faraway look in her eye, “I loved those short stories.”

Tommy regarded her with affection. “You always were a bit of a romantic, Tuppence. Full of nostalgia.”

She smiled at him. “Well, one good thing about living on forever in reader imaginations is that we always get to stay young and adventurous.”

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Although I suppose it could be argued that Tommy and Tuppence are minor league detectives compared to the great Hercule Poirot and the amazing Jane Marple, I have always had tremendous affection for these lesser known sleuths of Agatha Christie’s.

Last year I went on a Tommy and Tuppence reunion tour and re-read all the books in which they’re featured. They loomed so vibrant in my reading memory that I was almost astonished to discover their scarcity in Christie’s canon. But in many ways, that simply adds to their mystique. They pop in and out of Christie’s long writing career, like old friends that every once in a while she simply had to revisit.

They show up early (very!) in 1922’s The Secret Adversary, beaten out only by Poirot’s first case. As dashing young adventurers, their story has far more of the romantic and comedic spy thriller about it than the straightforward cozy-whodunit.

They come back in 1929’s short story collection Partners in Crime, still arguably my favorite Tommy and Tuppence book (in case you couldn’t tell). Their witty banter seems perfect for these shorter tales, and I’ve always wished for more stories from this period in their detecting/spying careers.

They arrive on the scene again in N or M? of 1941, a terrific espionage novel set in war-time. We don’t see them again until 1968’s By the Pricking of My Thumbs, a somewhat disturbing novel set in a very different season of Christie’s writing. They appear again in the poignant Postern of Fate, a novel marked by a great deal of nostalgia – and the last novel Christie ever wrote (though others were published later).

Admittedly, the final two books don’t show Christie at the top of her game. But considering there were only five Tommy and Tuppence books altogether, it seems striking to see the placement of those books in her canon. It suggests a great love for these lively characters when you realize that Christie created them so early in her career and felt an urge to return to them so near the end of it.

And although Christie seemed to save her most brilliant plots and creative bits of writing for other detectives, there’s a wonderful vibrancy to Tommy and Tuppence. Why do I love them so? Let me count the ways…

1) I love that they’re a couple. All of Christie’s other detectives may have help or even partners of a sort (“mon ami, my dear Hastings!”) but Tommy and Tuppence are truly a team. Each brings unique strengths to the work they do. Tommy is completely solid, faithful and trustworthy. Tuppence, as Christie herself once described her, is "scattily intuitive" (love that phrase)! Tommy may be the “official” investigator in the world’s eyes, but Christie -- and the elusive Mr. Carter -- both know that he’d be nothing without Tuppence. And Tommy knows it too.

2) They’re funny. Really, truly funny, in that stolid British way. From Tuppence’s penchant for buying hats to Tommy’s gallant flirtations, they make me laugh.

3) Albert.

4) They age! Miss Marple, like your maiden aunt or your first Sunday School teacher, has been old ever since you met her. Even Poirot, by the time we first see him, is already retired and moving into a long second career. But Tommy and Tuppence are different every time we see them, and grounded, at least somewhat, in real time.

They meet during World War I, their courtship, marriage and early career are totally defined by the 1920s. Their work for the government, in their late middle-age, is colored by World War II, the war in which their own grown children serve. In the final books, Christie even gives us a glimpse of them when they’re elderly, and of course part of the delight comes in seeing how essentially unchanged they are.

OK, don’t push the timeline too hard – it won’t stand the scrutiny. Still, every time Christie popped in on Tommy and Tuppence (or they popped in on her?) she showed them in a different season of life. It gives them an extra layer of reality, so that you almost feel as though you’ve been flipping through the photo albums on their coffee table. It also makes you miss all the intervening years you don’t get. I still long to see Tommy and Tuppence sleuthing up a storm while Derek and Deborah are in nappies. Can’t you just imagine Tuppence, pushing a pram, hot on the trail of some underworld crook?

Long live Tommy and Tuppence Beresford! They deserve to be celebrated.