Literature / Partners in Crime

Partners in Crime is a 1929 short story collection by Agatha Christie.

It features the return of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, previously seen in spy novel The Secret Adversary. In the interim since their debut, Tommy and Tuppence have gotten married.

The frame story has the Secret Service discovering that "The International Detective Agency" is actually a front for Russian spies. The owner is arrested and Mr. Carter, Tommy's boss in the Secret Service, asks him to run the agency, with Tuppence posing as his secretary. While they wait for spies to contact them, the two are assigned actual detective cases. A total of 14 short stories, all published in magazines between 1923 and 1928, were included in the collection. Most of the stories satirize popular mystery writers of the era. The stories are:

• "A Fairy in the Flat / A Pot of Tea". First published together as a short story called "Publicity". The first sets the frame, as Tommy and Tuppence are told to take over a detective agency. In the second, a rich young nobleman, Lawrence St. Vincent, asks the duo to find his missing girlfriend Janet.
• "The Affair of the Pink Pearl". A Miss Kingston Bruce hires the agency to find a pink pearl, stolen from her parents' house.
• "The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger". A doctor, Charles Bower, comes in to the agency and says that he is getting plagued with fake house calls, after which his office is searched. Soon after, DI Dymchurch from Scotland Yard arrives, says that he is following Bower, and reports that Bower is suspected of being part of the spy ring that Tommy and Tuppence are there to investigate.
• "Finessing the King / The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper". Tuppence reads an ad in the paper and figures out that it is a veiled reference to the Three Arts Ball, a costume ball. Tommy and Tuppence go to the ball to find out what's up.
• "The Case of the Missing Lady". A polar explorer, Gabriel Stavansson, hires the agency to find his missing girlfriend. Stavansson suspects the involvement of the girlfriend's aunt, who disapproves of him.
• "Blindman's Bluff". Mr. Carter, Tommy's boss in the Secret Service, stops by to tell them that the Russians know Tommy is an impersonator. Meanwhile, Tommy is met by the Duke of Blairgowrie, who tells Tommy that the duke's daughter has been kidnapped.
• "The Man in the Mist". Tommy and Tuppence meet a famous actress, Gilda Glen. Gilda tells them that she avoids a particular stretch of road because she thinks it's haunted. Soon after, Gilda is murdered.
• "The Crackler". Someone is distributing counterfeit one-pound notes, and Tommy and Tuppence are on the case.
• "The Sunningdale Mystery". Tommy and Tuppence consider a newspaper story they read, about a golfer who was murdered, stabbed through the heart with a hatpin, after meeting a mysterious woman the day before on the course.
• "The House of Lurking Death". A woman named Lois Hargreaves hires the detectives to find out who sent her a poisoned box of chocolates. Lois has reason to think it was someone in her household.
• "The Unbreakable Alibi". An amiable but dim young man, Montgomery Jones, hires the detectives to solve a puzzle that Jones's girlfriend gave to him: how is it that she was able to be in two places at once?
• "The Clergyman's Daughter / The Red House". A young woman who had hoped to make her home into a boarding house reports signs of a poltergeist, but she thinks it's a hoax perpetrated by a man who wanted to buy the house.
• "The Ambassador's Boots". The U.S Ambassador, Randolph Wilmott, hires the detectives to find out what happened to his valise. His valet told him that the valise was accidentally switched out with that of another passenger on the ocean liner, Senator Ralph Westerham, but when Wilmott meets Westerham, Westerham doesn't know what he was talking about.
• "The Man Who Was No. 16". Mr. Carter comes back to warn Tommy and Tuppence that the Russians know something is up, and they have dispatched a spy, known only as #16, to find out what has happened to their agents.

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Tropes:

• Almost Dead Guy:
  • Referenced in the opening story. Tuppence, discussing her readiness to Jump at the Call, wishes a dead man would stagger into the room and say something enigmatic. Her husband responds "Tuppence, what have you been reading?"
  • Then it actually happens in "Finessing the King", when Tuppence comes up to a woman who has been stabbed in the chest. Tuppence asks her who did it, and the woman whispers "Bingo did it" before she expires. (She has a lover named "Bingo" Hale, but naturally, things are more complicated than that.)
• Americans Are Cowboys: Conversational Troping where Tuppence is describing her fantasy of meeting a dashing romantic American man who has lived in the wilds and can rope wild steer, and Tommy sarcastically asks if he's also wearing chaps and a ten-gallon hat.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: The opening paragraphs have a bored Tuppence saying "I wish something would happen." Tommy answers "Be careful, Tuppence, this craving for vulgar sensation alarms me." Moments later Mr. Carter shows up and gives Tommy his new assignment.
• Bland-Name Product: Tommy and Tuppence sometimes have dinner at the Blitz Hotel, standing in for the Ritz.
• Blind Justice: One of the stories is a pastiche of Thornley Colton, with Tommy wearing an eyeshade to simulate blindness. It's a fake to prank Tuppence.
• Blind People Wear Sunglasses: When Tommy is pretending to be a blind detective in the story "Blindman's Bluff", he wears opaque glasses as part of the exercise, claiming to the client that it's because the bright lights of the restaurant hurt. It turns out he can see through them perfectly and was just pranking Tuppence.
• Chekhov's Skill: "Finessing the King/The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper" opens with Tommy demonstrating his observational skills by pontificating about the way the newspaper masthead has a noticable white spot in a different place each day, something Tuppence can't see any use in knowing. Tuppence later uses it to prove that the torn bit of newspaper in the victim's hand didn't come from the Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper's costume, because it was the wrong day's.
• Clear Their Name: In the story "Finessing the King/The Gentleman Dressed In Newspaper", Inspector Marriot arrests the victim's lover, and tells Tommy and Tuppence repeatedly that it's an Open-and-Shut Case. Tuppence realises that he's trying to wind them up, since his instincts tell him the man is innocent, but is constrained by the evidence.
• Combat Haircomb: "The Sunningdale Mystery" has them investigating a man who was stabbed with a hatpin. Tuppence immediately rules out the main suspect, who has a '20s Bob Haircut and therefore wouldn't have a hatpin. She later extends this to correctly concluding that the murderer was a man, trying to make it look as though a woman had done it.
• Counterfeit Cash: "The Crackler" has Blunt's Brilliant Detectives assigned to break up a counterfeiting ring, since forged pound notes have been showing up in circles the Beresfords have access to as themselves. Tommy names the mysterious ringleader "the Crackler" after the sound a banknote makes.
• Driven to Suicide: "The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper" has Sir Arthur jumping out the window of the detective agency to his death when Tuppence figures out how he did it.
• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Tommy and Tuppence do this in " The Case of the Missing Lady", when discussing their plans to break into a supposed clinic run by a suspected kidnapper:
  Tommy: Then tonight —
  Tuppence: As soon as it's dark —
  Tommy: We shall see —
  Tuppence: What we shall see.
• Framing Device: Tommy and Tuppence are given charge of a detective agency that is actually a front for Russian spies, and investigate several real cases while the spy hunt goes on.
• Funetik Aksent: "The Crackler" features a fellow from Alabama who pronounces "Europe" as "Yurrop".
• Greedy Jew: A little casual anti-Semitism out of nowhere, when Tommy and Tuppence are out at a club, and Tommy is trying to impress her with his skills as a Blind Seer.
  "The man two tables from us is a very wealthy profiteer, I fancy," said Tommy carelessly. "Jew, isn't he?"
• Hidden in Plain Sight: In "The Man in the Mist", Tommy and Tuppence actually speak to the murderer as he leaves the scene of the crime, yet they take no notice, because he's a policeman.
• Inheritance Murder: Lois in "The House of Lurking Death" is murdered by someone who wants her vast fortune.
• "London, England" Syndrome: A plot point in "The Case of the Missing Lady" is that there are two towns in England called Maldon; one in Surrey and one in Sussex. The characters know of Maldon, Surrey, so don't bother reading the "Maldon, Su..." address on a telegram properly. Only later does Tuppence realize that the telegraph office only give the county if they need to specify between two places with the same name. (The real town of Maldon is in Essex, however.)
• Masquerade Ball: Tommy and Tuppence go to one on an investigation in "Finessing the King"/"The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper".
• Mr. Smith: When they take their first case as Blunt's Brilliant Detectives, Tommy deeply impresses his first client (who admittedly, is a bit of an idiot) by deducing that "Er ... Smith" isn't his real name. Tommy, in Sherlock Holmes mode, goes on to expound that he doesn't know anyone called Smith, and is thinking of writing a monograph on the subject. He's a bit taken aback when a real Smith appears by the end of the case.
• Needle in a Stack of Needles: In "The Crackler", when Tommy and a confederate find the villains' hideout, he marks the door with a cross. The confederate is actually one of the gang, and marks the other doors the same way. Subverted because Tommy already suspected his partner, and also dropped a bottle of valarian essence. Tuppence and the police just have to find the door surrounded by cats.
• Never the Obvious Suspect: Occasionally referenced by Tommy and Tuppence as part of their Conversational Troping of mystery tropes. For instance, in one story Tommy jokingly suggests the criminal is a woman in a wheelchair with no perceivable motive, because she's clearly the least likely suspect. In another Tuppence is disappointed that other evidence seems to rule out the wife, because she always suspects wives who were nowhere near the scene of the crime and couldn't possibly have done it.
• Obfuscating Disability:
  • Conversational Troping in one story, where Tommy says his main suspect is the client's wheelchair-bound mother, who is only pretending, but is unable to come up with a reason why she's only pretending. (She isn't.)
  • In another story Tommy does this himself, pretending to be blind by wearing an opaque eyeshade in order to imitate the fictional detective Thonley Colton. The eyeshade itself doesn't even impair his vision, although he pretends it does to Tuppence, and once he learns the villain knows he isn't really blind.
• Pastiche: The stories in this collection are Agatha Christie giving Shout Outs and/or satirizing other popular mystery writers of the day. "The Case of the Missing Lady" satirizes Sherlock Holmes (the last Sherlock Holmes stories were published in 1927), "The Affair of the Pink Pearl" satirizes Dr. Thorndyke, and, believe it or not, closing story "The Man Who Was No. 16" lampoons Christie's own Hercule Poirot. This is all done specifically by Tommy, In-Universe. Tommy tells Tuppence that, since the two of them have been put in charge of a detective agency despite having no experience as detectives, they might as well read detective fiction to see how it's done.
• Phone-In Detective: In "The Sunningdale Mystery", Tommy and Tuppence solve a case by reading about it in the newspaper.
• Phoney Call: Tommy has a hidden button on his desk at the International Detective Agency. If he wants to impress a client or end an interview early, he presses it, and Alfred the office boy phones him. He then answers the phone and pretends to be speaking to an important government minister or something.
• Pirate Booty: In story "The Clergyman's Daughter/The Red House", the detectives suspect that the deceased old lady whose niece hired them to solve the mystery of her house may have buried her missing fortune in the garden, or more likely got the gardener to do it for her. When they question the gardener, however, he tells them he never buried anything. This is because he never buried anything unusual; the tins he was told contained potatoes were a perfectly normal thing to bury. The lady even left a sort of treasure map in the form of a rebus.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: In-Universe. Tuppence tells a client that for an extra fee, they'll solve the case in twenty-four hours or less. The client is suitably impressed and pays, Tommy is less enthusiastic when he finds out. It turns out that Tuppence has already solved the case, largely because she helped create it. In the very next story, the clients say they've heard about this amazing guarantee...
• Sherlock Scan: Tommy makes a couple of attempts at this. In "The Affair of the Pink Pearl" he says to the client "You must find travelling by bus very tiring at this time of day", only to be told she came by taxi, and picked up a discarded bus ticket for a neighbour who collects them. In "The Case of the Missing Lady" he is able to "deduce" that the client has spent some time in the Arctic or Antarctic, by virtue of his distinctive tan. In fact, he was listening in when the man gave his name in the outer office, and recognised him as a famous polar explorer. (He also deduces that the man arrived in a taxi, adding to Tuppence afterwards "after all, it's the only reliable way of getting to this place.")
• Smithical Marriage: Tommy and Tuppence frequently use aliases during their investigations, partly because it's fun, and partly to prevent High Society from discovering that they do serious work. In one story, they get into a discussion of what alias to sign a hotel registry with in front of the desk clerk, who is stunned that anyone would be so open about it.
• Spy Speak: "Blind Man's Bluff" has an improvised metaphor code, as Tommy manages to tell Tuppence that she should phone Albert and get him to follow them when they leave the Blitz Hotel with their new clients, while apparently telling her to place an order with the hotel restaurant for tomorrow's dinner.
• Sword Cane: In "Blind Man's Bluff", Tommy (who is pretending to be blind to win a bet with his wife) has one concealed in his fake "white stick".
• Trap Is the Only Option: In "The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger", when Tommy arranges a meeting with someone who is quite obviously an agent of No. 16 who suspects he isn't really Mr. Blunt, Tuppence complains that he's walking into a trap with his eyes closed. Tommy replies that, on the contrary, he's walking into a trap with his eyes open.
• '20s Bob Haircut: A plot point in "The Sunningdale Mystery" - Tuppence points out that a woman with bobbed hair is unlikely to have stabbed a man with a hatpin and later extends this to concluding that the murderer was a man trying to frame her.
• Twin Switch: "The Unbreakable Alibi" involves a young man whose girlfriend presented him with a logic puzzle. She crafts an "alibi", leaving evidence that she was in two different places at the same time, and challenges him to figure out how she did it. The solution, of course, is that she has a twin sister.
• Uptown Girl: The first client at Blunt's Brilliant Detectives is an Upper-Class Twit called Lawrence St Vincent, who is in love with a girl who works in a hat shop, and wants them to investigate her mysterious disappearance. It turns out to all be a Zany Scheme to get him to notice her, hatched by Tuppence without Tommy's knowledge. Later stories establish that they got married.
• You Watch Too Much X: Tommy's reaction to his wife's wild ideas about having adventures is "Tuppence, what have you been reading?"