Book Review: The Christie Affair

3 out of 5 stars (3 / 5) The Christie Affair – Nina de Gramont

I found this story to be entertaining and unique in that it was written from Agatha Christie’s husband’s mistress’ point of view which is certainly a new perspective but the overall story fell a bit flat for me.

As many people are aware, Agatha Christie went missing for a week in the 1920’s in the middle of her writing career. When she reappeared she claimed to not remember/know what had happened or why she was where she was found. Given that this was always her explanation of her disappearance throughout the rest of her life, many theories have arisen to explain this strange situation and as you would expect, some theories are better than others.

This speculative fiction novel writes the story of Agatha Christie’s disappearance from the point-of-view of Archibald Christie’s mistress, Nan. Nina de Gramont weaves Nan’s life story throughout the narrative of Nan’s role in the Christie’s marriage, Agatha’s disappearance, and eventual marriage between Archibald Christie and Nan. She also includes the mysterious deaths of a married couple at a hotel during the week of Agatha’s disappearance. 

Unfortunately, this story felt a bit contrived and fell flat for me as I was never compelled to care for Nan even though she had a difficult life. The revealing of information (while ‘solving’ the mystery of the deaths of the couple in the hotel) was delayed to the point that the meaning was obscured and I was asking myself ‘wait…who was this person again?’ So, while I was certainly entertained by this speculative novel, it was not my favorite theory of Agatha’s disappearance and the mystery writing could have been better. 

Read on my friends!

-Haddi 

 

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