More from the Beresfords: N or M?

Genre: Crime fiction, adventure, World War II, espionage

Published: 1941

Yet another light adventure story from Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. In World War II, Britain was at war with the Nazi Germans. Tommy and Tuppence, now middle-aged and no longer active in service, found themselves bored at home, yearning for the good old days where they worked for the British Intelligence. They were visited by a Mr. Grant who had a job for Tommy; outwardly, he is supposed to go to Scotland to do some paper-filing work, but in reality Tommy is going to Leahampton to uncover a German spy. All information they had was that the spy, who is the mastermind plotting a major attack on England, may be a man (N) or a woman (M), and that he or she is staying in a guest house named Sans Souci in Leahampton. With such little information, there is no choice but for Tommy to go and do some “digging” work and discover the German’s plans.

However, Tuppence will not be left out of the excitement. She goes to Leahampton herself and posed as a certain “Mrs. Blenkensop”, a gossipy middle-aged widow who is bad at knitting and has three sons in the Service. Meanwhile, Tommy is now “Mr. Meadowes”, the newest guest at Sans Souci who is fond of playing golf. They met the other guests living there, but each one of them is so “ordinary” that it seems impossible that one of them is in fact an evil German agent.

In the end, this book remains an entertaining read if you are looking for something adventurous and not too complex. Not much crime here, and certainly no murder weapons, suspects, or motives for you to ponder as you go through the story; just a typical “Tommy and Tuppence” plot. Double agents, Fifth Columnists, Nazi sympathizers, secret codes and a little romance sum up the whole story nicely.

My rating: 3.5/5.0