Christie’s ’N or M?’ Follows two married and retired secret service agents Tommy and Tuppence who served in the First World War and are recruited in the Second to track down a Nazi agent and spy residing on the south coast of England. I managed to read the book within a day, it wasn’t that long and in depth and the plotline reasonably simple, without too many clues or red herrings. This did however lead me to figure out who was the agent far before the big reveal at the conclusion. 

In regards to plot and character ’N or M?’ wasn’t overly clever. I could see many similarities between it and the other two of Christie’s works I have read, with the eclectic cast of suspects in the Sans Souci Boarding House being alike to those gathered on the island in ‘And then there were none’ and the ‘locked room’ suspect list being similar in pattern to ‘Murder on the Orient Express’. It does however do neither to as great an effect and in terms of my engagement eight the mystery did not come close to the two aforementioned works of Christie. There was also a primary focus on nationality and stereotyping as a consequence, a reflection of the wartime setting and suspicions but a character choice that still didn't sit right nonetheless. It was just a fine thriller, enhanced by its WW2 backdrop but the mystery elements themselves were nothing that exciting and unfortunately a 'plot twist' that was by no means much of a twist and failed to leave me surprised.