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The Man in the Brown Suit
(Colonel Race #1),
by Agatha Christie.
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This work has a protagonist, Anne Beddingfield, relatively unknown to someone who hasn't read every work of the author. It might have been the author's way of trying out a different genre, humour, while not straying from mystery.
"It is really a very hard life. Men will not be nice to you if you are not good-looking, and women will not be nice to you if you are."
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Until this Pont, it's fun enough, what with the witty humour and more. But now,
"“Take away the overcoat, the beard and the eyeglasses, and there wouldn’t be much to know him by,” grumbled the inspector. “He could alter his appearance easy enough in five minutes if he wanted to—which he would do if he’s the swell pickpocket you suggest.”
"I had not intended to suggest anything of the kind. But from this moment I gave the inspector up as hopeless.
"“Nothing more you can tell us about him?” he demanded, as I rose to depart.
"“Yes,” I said. I seized my opportunity to fire a parting shot. “His head was markedly brachycephalic. He will not find it so easy to alter that.”
"I observed with pleasure that Inspector Meadow’s pen wavered. It was clear that he did not know how to spell brachycephalic."
That last dialogue is the unforgettable bit that clued one In! One knowsdefinitely now that one read this decades ago, loved it, and is rereading a really good, intelligent mystery, although until that clue one had no such clue.
But the second time the word crops up, as expected, is far too soon; is there a third time, close to the end, or is there another work by the author with this terminology and ploy?
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Trust Agatha Christie to put in what would seem like a typical romance introduction scene written especially for teenage school girl readers, and make completely hilarious with her subtle touch!
"“You haven’t thanked me yet for saving your life?” I said with false sweetness. I hit him there. I saw him flinch distinctly. Intuitively I knew that he hated above all to be reminded that he owed his life to me. I didn’t care. I wanted to hurt him. I had never wanted to hurt any one so much.
"“I wish to God you hadn’t!” he said explosively.
"“I’d be better dead and out of it.”
"“I’m glad you acknowledge the debt. You can’t get out of it. I saved your life and I’m waiting for you to say ‘Thank you.’”
"If looks could have killed, I think he would have liked to kill me then. He pushed roughly past me. At the door he turned back, and spoke over his shoulder.
"“I shall not thank you—now or at any other time. But I acknowledge the debt. Some day I will pay it.”
"He was gone, leaving me with clenched hands, and my heart beating like a mill race."
And the author lets you know, tongue-in-cheek, her opinion:-
" ... I cannot think that this Colonel Race really amuses her. He’s good-looking in his way, but dull as ditch water. One of these strong silent men that lady novelists and young girls always rave over."
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Another one, remembered when one reads it now:-
"Sir Eustace looked at me for some time. His reply was characteristic:
"“I always did hate that blinking giraffe,” he said. “It must have been instinct.”"
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And, at that, she manages to write a perfect prototype for every penny romance written since for teenage school girls, too. That, too, must have been by design, the author wondering if she'd like to do this, and whether she could.
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May 03, 2021 - May 05, 2021.
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