Agatha Christie

CHRISTIE, Agatha (1890-1976). N or M? London: for The Crime Club by Collins, 1941.

Presentation copy of the first UK edition, inscribed by the author to her secretary, amanuensis and close friend Charlotte 'Carlo' Fisher: 'Carlo with love from Agatha'.

This spy thriller features the agents Tommy and Tuppence, whose previous appearances had been in the adventure The Secret Adversary (1922) and the short story collection Partners in Crime (1929); now middle-aged, Tommy is asked by the government to resume his undercover work to aid with war work seeking out foreign agents, and Tuppence joins him. The couple were to appear in two further novels By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968) and Postern of Fate (1973). The present work was published in the U.S. in June and in the UK in November 1941. Hubin p.80.

Octavo. Original orange cloth, spine lettered in black (slight bumping to fore-edge of first gathering, spine sunned and marked); original dust-jacket supplied from another copy (a little frayed at head and foot of spine, price-clipped, spine slightly sunned, lower panel slightly toned). Provenance: Charlotte 'Carlo' Fisher (1895-1976, secretary, amanuensis and close friend of Agatha Christie; presentation inscription from the author on front free endpaper, and with Fisher’s posthumous book label).