Not a Christie I’d heard of before and not a regular mystery. Good first half, I like the way someone about to commit suicide is offered a mission with a good chance of death instead. The plot goes gradually downhill in the second half really. This is a kind of spy thriller which falls somewhere between vintage and dated. Having finished it I am more inclined towards “vintage” for the good descriptive aspects of travelling in the 1950s rather than “dated” for some of the plot devices, I was at least pleased it didn’t fall into the whole “oh no not the communists” pit that I it teetered on the edge of for a while. Not a book I’d recommend to anyone else really, but not one I regret picking up.