Just Finished Reading The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

The Secret Adversary, from 1922, was the second novel published by mystery writer Agatha Christie.  It is set a couple of years earlier as World War I had just ended and there was a power struggle going on in England...as well as other countries...between forces wanting to stabilize the current capitalist system and those espousing leftist revolutions.  In the middle of all this a young man and woman, Tommy and (Prudence) Tuppence...friends from childhood...decide to form their own private detective agency.   Naturally, they also instantly find themselves swept up into a conspiracy...headed by a mysterious, unknown master criminal calling himself "Mr. Brown"... to violently overthrow the British government.  His organization's plan is to cause international scandal based on the recovery of a secret deal agreed to between America and England in 1915, as expressed in a two-page letter that was to be transported across the Atlantic on the Lusitania.  That ship, as anyone with an inkling of history already knows, was sunk by the Germans...the letter's courier, however, at the last minute hands it over to a young girl, recognizing that she would be given preference over him to the limited number of lifeboats.  But since then she has disappeared, and both the good guys and bad guys are searching for her and the letter, which now would be fatally damaging to the government. Tommy and Tuppence quickly get themselves entangled in the fray and have all sorts of adventures.  The ending is conclusive and satisfying with a surprise twist...that's about all I can say without giving away crucial elements of the story...

I recently read another book that came out in 1922, this one from Ireland and also concerning itself with the events of that era: James Joyce's Ulysses.  Both are essentially works of fiction and written in the English language...beyond that they bear little similarity to each other.  Whereas Christie had set herself out to write for a widespread, popular audience, Joyce composed his work as something to be studied and cherished by literary scholars.  When Agatha Christie wrote, I forget about her as the author as I find myself immersed in her stories.  James Joyce, on the other hand, wrote as if he were trying to greatly impress me with his breadth of knowledge, ability to twist the English language into pretzels, and cutting satire.  To each his own, I guess...