The Christie Affair

This cleverly plotted, engrossing story will keep you frantically flipping pages to find out what happens next. This takes the story you think you're getting: of a man who leaves his wife for a younger woman, and the wife is so distraught, she disappears for a week, then it turns the trope on his head.

This book is based on the true story of Agatha Christie, the famous author, who, when she found out her husband was having an affair, disappeared for a week, prompting a countrywide hunt for her. She was finally found checked into a spa under her husband's mistress name. And no, telling you that doesn't give you any spoilers. This book was very unexpected, in a good way.

Agatha was memorable as the scorned wife playing her cards to get her show more husband back. Nan's the clear-eyed younger woman who knows exactly what she's doing and sees all the faults in , but wants him anyway. And Archie Christie is the man who thinks he knows what he wants, until he doesn't. But the further you read, the more unexpected layers these characters have. The two separate love stories that play out are both bittersweet and engaging. There's murder, lust, star-crossed lovers and characters taking charge of their own destiny, despite the societal forces that conspired against them.

This book also takes an insightful look at wealth and privilege, and how it can lead to carelessness with others' lives. If you're a fan of historical fiction, this is one you won't want to miss.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

I have only read one Agatha Christie novel - The Hollow - but was still drawn in by the hype for this reimagining of the author's 'disappearance' in 1926. However, the story isn't really about Christie but a fictionalisation of Nancy Neele, the 'other woman' who later married Colonel Christie. Nina de Gramont turns the break up of a marriage and a brief breakdown, never explained by the famous author, into an altogether different scandal about Magdalene Laundries, or a variation thereof, in Ireland, and the fate of women who had babies out of wedlock in the early twentieth century.

Renamed and reinvented, the second Mrs Christie becomes Nan O'Dea, the daughter of an impoverished Irish father and his English wife living in the East End of show more London (which sounds more romantic than an English middle class engineer and his wife from Hertfordshire, I guess). She feels a connection to Agatha, even while seducing her husband, but is desperate for the Colonel to leave his wife and marry her - although not for the obvious reason, she claims: "I had no patience for such girls, who preyed on husbands – or even available men – simply to better their own circumstances." When Agatha is told that her husband wants a divorce, she seemingly takes leave of her senses and goes AWOL, her car found abandoned nearby. A full scale manhunt is launched and the author's husband is suddenly beside himself with guilt, which would seem a strange time for Nan to also disappear - but she is the only one who knows where Agatha Christie is hiding, and why.

My main problem with the novel, apart from the usual 'Oirish' clichés and American fantasies, full of Claddagh rings and four leaf clovers, not to mention men named Finbarr - 'My sisters belonged to my mother and England, but Ireland was where I belonged. I had an ancestral memory of those green hills' - is the narration. Nan is narrator, but she is somehow able to tell everyone else's story as well as her own, even when she can have no idea of what people said and did when she wasn't there. De Gramont attempts to lampshade this lapse in logic by addressing the narrative quirk directly - 'You may well wonder if you can believe what I tell you about things that occurred when I myself was not present' - but the switch between the first person and another character's perspective in the same chapter is still jarring. Literary devices which interrupt the flow of the story can be too cute to carry off.

Also, Nan is not a pleasant character - if I was a descendant of the real Nancy Christie, I would be offended on her behalf. Please save us poor readers from obnoxious narrators and the authors who think we should like them anyway just because they are women! With her half Oirish roots and loving yet poor background, Nan resents Agatha Christie just for being a different class - 'For the sake of a woman like her a hundred more always suffered' - while simultaneously trying to usurp the author's husband and lifestyle. But not for money, obviously, which would taint her pure soul or something. The actual reason for Nan seducing the Colonel and dispatching Agatha to Harrogate is bonkers, to coin a phrase. The author is suitably ambiguous about the 'truth' but I would err on the side of believability and suggest that Nan's experience in Ireland clearly sent her over the edge.

I wasn't really moved by Nan's tale of woe, which is a problem when her backstory takes up most of the book, and would have preferred a better (or less romanticised) account of Agatha Christie's lost ten days instead. Nor did I get a sense of mixed trauma and prosperity of the 1920s - Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge mysteries are more evocative of the post-WW1 era. I learned a lot about Agatha Christie - mainly from Wikipedia - and want to read some of her books now, but otherwise I think I got what I paid for (99p on Kindle!) show less

This book was an intriguing reimagining of the days Agatha Christie disappeared in 1926. It is told from the viewpoint of Nan O'Dea - the Other Woman - who was Archie Christie's mistress and second wife.

As the story develops, we learn about Nan's past and her reasons for pursuing Archie. Along the way there is romance and murder and revenge for a great wrong. The murders were not center stage and seemed to be almost a throw away detail in the bigger picture when they were first described. I liked the echoes to some of Agatha's stories - very MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS.

The story was not fast paced but unfolded in a leisurely manner that still managed to be intensely gripping. Revelation after revelation build a strong picture of Nan show more and, peripherally, Agatha Christie and Archie Christie who doesn't fare well in this story.

The story also illuminates the time period between the first and second world wars when mores are changing and there is more than a social revolution going on. Nan's history includes horrific details about the fates of unwed mothers and their babies during that time period and in that place. Agatha's own growth, as depicted in this story, is also an example of social change.

This story was an interesting imagining of those missing days in Agatha's life told by a woman who is just a footnote in Agatha's story but a strong main character here. show less

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont is a 2022 St. Martin’s Press publication.

The eleven days that Agatha Christie went missing is one of the most debated 'unsolved' mysteries of all time.

While the frantic search was on for Christie, the possible catalyst for her disappearance was her husband Archie’s infidelities. Archie had apparently fallen in love and asked Agatha for a divorce, not long after the passing of her mother. Who had Archie fallen so hard for that he was willing to break up his marriage? Who was ‘Nan O’Dea’ and why did she set out to lure Archie away from his wife?

This novel is a very crafty imagining of what might have happened during the eleven days, in 1926, when Agatha Christie vanished. Here, Agatha show more must share the spotlight with 'Nan', who recounts her life leading up to Agatha’s disappearance, her upbringing, her life in Ireland, and the sad circumstances of war that disrupted her life and future, which has led her to this point.

This narrative will take readers by surprise as one goes from disliking the calculating femme fatale who had the audacity to steal Agatha’s husband, to becoming a sympathetic character one is tempted to root for- but only cautiously.

The mystery of Agatha Christie’s disappearance is endlessly fascinating to me. I admit, though, that I have never found myself all that curious about Archie’s second wife and have never considered what her personal circumstances might have been.

This story reveals ‘Nan’s' motive for going after Archie- and it's one you might not suspect- though the clues are there all along. The mystery within a mystery, and the drama surrounding Agatha’s lengthy disappearance, combined Nan’s personal story meshes together to make a fascinating and compelling, and simply fabulous story.

I got all wrapped up in this story. It is very well written, though one will have to stay focused to keep up with the timelines and narratives. The characters are well-drawn, with police inspector Chilton being a personal favorite.

I knew this was going to be a good book before I even read the first page. I just had a good feeling about it. But I had no idea I would step into a world this rich and luxurious. Wow!

I was absolutely riveted to the drama, so entrenched in Nan and Agatha’s competition that it took me by surprise when I found myself mired in a novel of suspense. Well, duh! We are talking about Agatha Christie here. How very diabolically clever!

The author did a fantastic job of approaching this age-old mystery from a fresh perspective and handled the material with much respect, while ending the story in a slightly bittersweet, but appealingly pleasant way.

I couldn’t help but love every single delicious page of it!!

4.5 stars show less

In 1926 Agatha Christie disappeared for eleven days. She turned up in a spa hotel in Harrogate, a long way from her home in Berkshire. Christie always maintained she couldn't remember anything about her unexplained disappearance but this novel offers a fantastic fictional version of the events that occurred over those eleven days.

One of the things that may have in part led to the disappearance was the fact that Christie's husband, Archie, was having an affair with a woman named Nancy Neele. In The Christie Affair, Nancy is renamed Nan O'Dea and the whole story is seen from her viewpoint, both at the time of the disappearance and looking back over what had happened in her own life up to that point which is of great relevance to the show more story.

This was a most unexpected book for me. I suppose I was expecting something that revolved solely around Christie's missing eleven days but that is only half the story and Nan's past puts a really fascinating slant on why it happened. I really don't want to say too much as I think a reader must let it unfold as they read but there are lots of surprises and the author's expert plotting offers an explanation that I could never have guessed at.

Although this is essentially a mystery tale, it's also a sad and moving consideration of the effects of the First World War and some of the things that happen to Nan were sadly common but completely tragic. Whilst this book has some elements of the truth to it, it's very much fictionalised and the author has imagined quite a past for Nan. There's a darkness to it, and a compelling narrative along with a romantic element that added a frisson of forbidden pleasure, made for a gripping reading experience.. I found I wanted to read in larger chunks to fully immerse myself in all that was happening and when I did so I was utterly engrossed. This is such an innovative and spellbinding book which hooked me from beginning to end. show less

Agatha Christie once disappeared for 11 days. She never gave a satisfactory explanation for it. The facts are few. I’m sure that if she ever would have disclosed the details, they would have come wrapped in a twisty plot with plenty of mystery, detectives and, of course, murders. Well, Nina de Gramont stepped up to give us just such a tale.

The historical facts are few. In December 1926, Agatha’s husband, Archie, announced he would divorce her and promptly left to spend the weekend with his mistress. Then Agatha decided to abandon their home and child. The only evidence left from her departure was her car containing her clothes, but not her typewriter, teetering on the edge of a quarry. Clearly, Agatha was not so despondent to show more consider abandoning her writing career. Suspecting suicide or foul play, the authorities launched a nationwide search. Eventually, Agatha was found at a spa in the rural village of Harrowgate. The story ends with Archie marrying his mistress, becoming their daughter’s custodial parent, and with Agatha continuing her successful writing career. With these meager facts as her framework, de Gramont crafted a devilishly clever Christie-esque story narrated, not by Agatha, but by Archie’s mistress, Nan O’Dea. While Archie’s real mistress was also named Nancy, she bears no resemblance to this Nan. The fictional Nan is lively, determined, conniving and, at her core, quite ruthless. Clearly, she is an unreliable narrator. A supremely unreliable narrator is not necessarily a serious flaw in today’s version of literary fiction. However, Nan’s uncanny ability to describe in detail events that she could never have witnessed can be unsettling.

Nan’s backstory is the novel’s primary plot driver. Most of the action that occurs during Agatha’s hiatus in Harrowgate stems from these events. These include idyllic summers in Ireland where she becomes romantically involved with a young neighbor called Finbarr; and the Great War removing Finbarr from the scene, but not before Nan becomes pregnant. Finbarr returns a damaged man and promptly gets the deadly Spanish flu. More of Nan’s turbulent history cannot be revealed without risking spoilers. Suffice it to say, it is indeed woeful.

Most of the action takes place at the Bellefort Hotel & Spa, a vacation resort in Harrowgate, also the scene of two murders. The characters converge here for a classical who-done-it reveal rivaling Christie’s best. De Gramont even folds in a romance for the spurned Agatha in the form of retired detective Clinton, a man tasked with finding her.

The narrative is cleverly structured notwithstanding occasional lapses into absurdity. It has multiple plot twists, well controlled pacing and a satisfying denouement. De Gramont also captures the times well including physical and psychological war injuries, the flu pandemic, and class issues extant in GB and Ireland. THE CHRISTIE AFFAIR should be a satisfying historical thriller for anyone, especially Christie fans. show less

1926 and female novelist Agatha Christie is shocked when her husband Archie tells her that he is leaving her for his mistress Nan. Agatha disappears for 11 days but the story is more complicated than just a trip to Harrogate. Nan has secrets of her own and a determination to see justice for the past.
This is a terrific book in which the true story of the disappearance of Agatha Christie is developed in a fictional context to become a mystery of Christie-esque proportions as well as a tale of obsessive love. I loved the way the two tales interwove and my only quibble is that the double murder was handled so lightly as to almost seem of little consequence. A real masterpiece of fiction writing.