I enjoyed Agatha Christie's fine characterization of young Albert, the elevator operator, the enigmatic Mr. Carter, the boisterous American millionaire, and the mysterious Mr. Brown to name a few. While Tommy and Tuppence "bow before the energy" of Julius Hersheimmer (the American), you sense that Christie is poking fun at him and his no-nonsense pragmatism.
The writing is good: The Laurels was a dilapidated house standing back from the road with a few grimy bushes to support the fiction of a front garden. The banter between the characters is fun. Watching Tommy and Tuppence (who have been friends for years) come to the realization that they love each other is delightful, and not the least bit syrupy.
At times it seems that Tuppence is the smarter of the two crime solvers. One character describes Tommy by saying, It is quite impossible to lead him astray through his imagination. He hasn't got any. He worries things out slowly and when he's got hold of anything, he doesn't let go. The little lady's quite different; more intuitive and less common sense. They make a pretty pair working together. I couldn't agree more.
There was more swearing in this one than I remember from book 4, but I think most of that came from Julius, the loud-mouthed American. I listened for free on YouTube, but was delighted to see that all five novels are available for $1.99 at the time I wrote this blog post.
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