posted on 23 Mar 2025

Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie

Christie’s name has become so indelibly associated with the ‘cosy crime’ genre she virtually defined that it’s easy to forget that she wasn’t solely a writer of detective stories featuring the immortal Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot. Destination Unknown takes us from the world of amateur sleuthing into Christie’s even more unlikely world of spy thrillers – and I will say from the outset, John Le Carre or Len Deighton this most certainly isn’t.

Published in 1954, the plot leans heavily on the collective paranoia surrounding the supposed Cold War communist menace. Nuclear scientists are mysteriously disappearing and, it is assumed, either voluntarily defecting to the Russians or being coerced and tricked into defection. The British secret service in the shape of an agent called Jessop is looking for a way to crack what’s going on and comes up with a plan that involves the unfortunate Hilary Craven. She has travelled to Morocco following her failed marriage and has decided to commit suicide – until Jessop steps in and offers her an alternative. He asks her to impersonate the wife of the latest missing scientist, Thomas Betterton.

Betterton’s real wife has died in a plane crash while on the way to Morocco and Hilary bears a passing similarity to her and can take the wife’s place and help locate where the missing scientists are being held. Yes, I know, it's already sounding massively unlikely.

What follows is probably something I shouldn’t explain in any sort of detail because it will be a substantial spoiler but there are a few things I can reveal that won’t damage the reading experience. There is, of course, a sort of obligatory romance, Hilary loses her desire to end it all and the reasons behind the scientists disappearing becomes a little more complex than the rather hackneyed Red Menace deus ex machina.

And, it should be said, it’s very readable in the way a black-and-white-Sunday-afternoon movie is watchable – it takes very little effort. But just as the crime novels are ingenious and carry you along in a willing suspension of disbelief, Destination Unknown stretches credulity in uncomfortable ways from the very outset. The clumsy device of making Hilary Craven suicidal and susceptible to the blandishments of the secret service just doesn’t work and her ‘training’ for this role is frankly laughable.

None of the characters have the charm of a Marple or Poirot and are slim shades, two dimensional actors in an overall plot that would have been more interesting if it had stuck to the conventional Russian menace theme. In an effort to give the disappearing scientists and their motives a more interesting twist, Christie makes them slightly absurd and even more two dimensional.

But I should go back to what I said earlier – this is a perfectly serviceable read if you’re looking for a mild diversion. Christie has the storytelling knack and plenty of people will be less finickity than me – so why not try it for yourself. Paperback copies are easily available for well under £10 and very much cheaper if you go second hand.

 

Terry Potter

March 2025