Ok, so we’re all familiar with Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Am I alone in never having heard of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford? I discovered them in a book of loosely connected short stories Partners in Crime. Tommy and Tuppence are a young hip 1920’s couple modeled on the so-called Bright Young Things of the age. In this book they have taken over the International Detective Agency and are posing as the owners in order to intercept and pass on treacherous messages. In the meantime, they are cheerfully solving crimes. In each story they are recreating the style of a famous detective. Not being much of a mystery reader, the nuances were a bit lost on me.

We first meet Tommy and Tuppence in The Secret Adversary. The are childhood friends who meet up after the war. They start the Young Adventurers ltd.willing to do anything anywhere for good pay. They become embroiled in espionage and, luckily for the country, they save the day. Tommy and Tuppence, unlike Poirot and Marple, age with time. In Partners in Crime it is six years later and they are young married couple. Their final escapade is in Postern of Fate. Tommy and Tuppence are now elderly and they have raised their children. They have retired to a resort town, but they investigating days are not quite over as they find a coded message about an unnatural death.

Tommy and Tuppence are a modern young couple, lighthearted and playful. Partners in Crime is a perfect little book if you are looking for something light and witty. True mystery fans will enjoy the spoofs of such detectives as Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown, Malcolm Sage and her own Hercule Poirot.