Agatha Christie Pair: The Adventurous Couple

Francesca Annis perfectly captures half of

an adventurous pair in another Christie creation.

In my post about Agatha Christie couples, I mention, "Sometimes the adventurous guy gets the adventurous gal (Cards on the Table)."

I refer to this particular pairing in two other posts: Why the French Sometimes Do Christie Better and Agatha Christie in France versus England. In sum, it irritates me that the BBC version of Cards on the Table felt it necessary to change this pairing to the adventurous guy gets the demure gal, not because that pairing can't happen but because the original pairing is so refreshing.

The adventurous couple is far more common in male/male stories, not because demure male heroes don't exist--they do--but because the default pairing for M/M is adventure + adventure. Reckless adventurous men have a tendency to drift into each other's orbit.

One of the best variations on this is Five Dares by Eli Easton where Jake is not truly all that adventurous but his friend/companion/eventual lover, Andy, has a penchant for the same type of risky pranks that pop up with Shawn on Psych. Andy needs a more grounded companion yet still someone who will celebrate his wild side.

A delightful trope here is when the supposedly more risk-adverse partner is willing to take a risk for the sake of the lover, as in Charlie Cochrane's Cambridge Fellows Mysteries when Orlando "dares" to drive the contraption (car) that Jonty loves in order to save Jonty from being murdered.

A refreshing aspect of M/M literature in this regard is that although discussions about risk and safety do occur between the adventurous couple, as they do in M/F literature, the default is not an argument: You have no right to control me! Okay, now that you've apologize, I guess we are okay. (Even Bones and Booth have this argument although it bugs me less than usual because Booth doesn't apologize: You'll take risks. I'll worry. Get over it.) Rather, in M/M, the default is, Of course, you have no right to control me, but I'll try not to drive you crazy anyway.  

Another positive exception among M/F couples is B'Elanna Torres-Tom Paris. They are both adventurers but not in the same way and not about the same things. I discuss them more here.