There is a reason that Agatha Christie is celebrated for her country-house murder mysteries and not for her international espionage thrillers. While the former show her strength and originality as a writer, the latter can’t help but feel slightly derivative and, at times, a little absurd.

In The Man in the Brown Suit Christie presents us with another plucky heroine, this time in the form of Anne Beddingfeld. Beddingfeld is one of Christie’s strong women, ready to weaponise her beauty and intellect, rather than subordinate herself to her patriarchal ‘protectors’.