Sir James Peel Edgerton aka Mr. Brown is the main antagonist of Agatha Christie's 1922 mystery book The Secret Advensary. He's a lawyer and a criminal mastermind, who wants to carry out a coup d'état.
Biography[]
We first hear about him as Mr. Brown when Carter instructs Tommy and Tuppence to find an important document that could cause a coup. Tommy and Tuppence meet Rita Vandemeyer, whom Whittinton has already mentioned. While keeping an eye on Whittinton, Tommy goes missing. Tuppence gets a job as Rita's housekeeper. There she meets Edgeron, who quickly guesses who she really is. Tuppence and the multimillionaire Julius, who joined her in order to find his cousin Jane Finn (who had that ominous document), decide to turn to Edgeron, who, they think, can help them in their case. He tells them to put pressure on Rita, since she is the weak link and is easily suggestible, which means she can tell what she knows. However, when Tuppence appears, Rita tries to give her sleeping pills at gunpoint, but Tuppence very quickly overpowers Rita. Tuppence is about to split Rita, but Julius and Edgeron appear and Rita faints from horror, shouting "Mr. Brown." Julius brings her cognac and she comes to her senses. However, in the morning she dies. The cause of death was the same sleeping pill that Rita had recently tried to put Tuppence to sleep with. Soon Tuppence receives news from Tommy, but disappears herself. Having escaped from captivity, Tommy, having learned from Julius about the latest events, understands that Rita was killed by Mr. Brown, who was present there when Tuppence interrogated Rita (which means it can only be Julius or Edgeron). Egeron himself, meanwhile, finds Jane Finn (in whom Tommy recognizes the girl who helped him get out of captivity). While Tommy and Julius deal with a gang of bandits, Jane tells Tuppence (whom Julius and Tommy rescued from captivity) where she actually hid the document. Edgeron decides to go there with them, claiming that Julius is an impostor and that the real Julius was killed. However, upon arriving at the place and receiving the document, he confesses that he is Mr. Brown. He is about to kill Jane and Tuppence, but Tommy and Julius intervene. Tommy realized Edgeron's true role in this story when he saw the fake note from Tuppence that the kidnapper had sent him. There, the name Tuppence was written with one P (while Julius knew how to spell Tuppence correctly, and no one except Julius and Edgeron could kill Rita). Edgeron commits suicide.
Personality[]
He seems like a typical taciturn lawyer who doesn't show all his cards. But at heart he is an arrogant criminal, ready to do anything for his wants. He is shown to be very manipulative, as he created a powerful organization to make a coup d'état with nobody ever to reveal who he is. If he had known how Tuppence's nickname is spelled properly, he possibly would have never been revealed. Overall, he is one of those criminals that can be described with a phrase "I created a powerful organization, I may controll countless lives and nobody (including my own minions) even know exactly who I am (because I'm A Man-Next-Door)". But he let his arrogance take the best of him, because he failed to realize that Jane Finn simulated her amnezia, because he thought that nobody can successfully cheat HIM.
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 Villains(Non-Poirot & Non-Marple) | |
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Tommy and Tuppence Beresford And Then There Were None Other Mystery Stories Adaptational, Homage & Non-Canonical | |