N or M?
Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf (Original Title N or M? ) Is the 30th crime novel by Agatha Christie. He appeared first in 1941 in the USA Dodd, Mead and Company, and in November the same year in the United Kingdom in the Collins Crime Club. The Scherz Verlag (Bern) published in 1945 the first German edition under the title The House of Mrs. Perenna translated by Lino Rossi used to date. 1960, the novel by the same publisher issued under the new title Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.
It is strictly speaking not a detective novel, but a classic spy thriller. It again occur Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. After their first appearances in the novel A dangerous opponent (1922 ) and the collection of crime stories Pandora's Box (1929 ) they are now a couple early 40s The pair are the only recurring characters in the work of Christie's, which according to the year of publication of stories and age novels, though not quite biographically coherent. In the next novel with them, Lauter lovely old ladies, they are in their 60s, in the last novel, Age does not protect against acumen, around the beginning of 70th
Declaration of the novel's title
The title comes from the catechism from the Book of Common Prayer, the general prayer book of the Anglican Church:
Question: How do you name? Answer: N. or M.
Introduction
After the outbreak of the Second World War and many years after they had worked for the British secret service, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford feel useless and unnecessary. Now when Mr. Carter, his old boss in the Secret Service, zoom takes Tommy to determine once undercover, Tuppence joins him - if he and his clients want to or not.
The two set out to search for a German agent in the head of the British army. It is suspected, a member of the fifth column of the German Nazis had let himself be there to infiltrate a mole. The only trace is the cryptic message from a British agent on his deathbed: " N or M. Song Susie ". Quickly find out the two that "Song Susie " stands for Sans Souci, a hotel in Leahampton, and N and M are two German spies - a woman and a man. Your identity is not immediately known.
Tommy travels to the fictional Leahampton to find out who the spies. He quartered himself in the pension of Mrs. Perenna, a dodgy acting person. There, he claims to be a widower named Mr. Meadowes. What he does not realize at first: Even Tuppence established himself there as a widow Mrs. Blenkensop domesticated. Tommy plays with the game and begins with "Mrs. Blenkensop " flirting heavily. For a long time is the camouflage well. In the pension there is a colorful cross-section quartered by the British company and a handful of German immigrants, who all come gradually under suspicion. Gradually Tommy and Tuppence reveal the relationships and get the enemy agents on the trail. In the last third of the novel, the situation escalates: Tommy and Tuppence are kidnapped and in a secret hiding place in the house of Colonel Haywood stated: He and Mrs. Sprot are the agents wanted - the baby had been only camouflage and not the child of the agent. At the last second the couple her former servant Albert (now Pubbesitzer and father ), who followed them, liberate and save their lives. At the end of Tuppence and Tommy conspiracy plans cover on for a German invasion of England. By the way, Mrs. Perenna turns out to be Irish and Sypathisantin the IRA. Carl von Deinim and Sheila are a couple.
People
- Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, undercover in the service of British intelligence
- Albert, her former faithful servant, now Pubbesitzer
- Mrs. Perenna, the owner of a house by the sea
- Sheila, their daughter, a serious, introspective young woman
- Carl von Deinim, German emigre who fled from the Nazis scientists, in love with Sheila
- Major Bletchley, hotel guest and Tommy's golf partner, with unclear relations with Germany
- Colonel Haywood, neighbor of Mrs. Perenna and actively involved in Counterintelligence
- Mrs. Sprot and daughter Betty, hotel guests escaped the air raids on London
- Mrs. O'Rourke, a hotel guest, feisty and curious older lady
- Wanda Polonska, mysterious stranger who turns up in the area
- Mr. Carter, Tommy's boss in the Secret Service in London
References to other works
There are multiple references in the book at first Tommy and Tuppence novel - A dangerous opponents. So Albert recalls how he then met his former rule. In old age protects against acumen does not remember Tommy Tuppence to the now decades past events and teases them with her appearance as "Mrs. Blenkensop ". Also, the now widowed Albert is here again as a servant of the party.