The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger

A mysterious cigarette lighter, the first anticipated blue Russian letter, and a doctor dealing with hoax callers. The detective agency spurs back into life as Tommy and Tuppence try to resolve these seemingly unrelated events.

In this instance the Beresford’s adopt the style and methods of Francis and Desmond, the Okewood Brothers, created by Valentine Williams (1883-1946), writing as Douglas Valentine. The Okewoods’ methods typically involved Desmond getting into a life-threatening scrape, only to be rescued by Francis, who “turns up as the gardener or something in the nick of time, and saves the situation.” In this case Tuppence unwittingly takes Francis’s role.

This story was published by Collins in the collection Partners in Crime, 1929. It was also adapted for BBC radio in 1953, titled The Mysterious Stranger. It starred Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim.