The Christie Affair

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

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

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

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

3.5/5

Nina de Gramont's The Christie Affair is a fictionalized account of a chapter from the renowned author Ms. Agatha Christies’s own life. On December 3, 1926, Ms. Agatha Christie disappeared from her home leaving her husband and young daughter behind only to resurface eleven days later at a hotel in Harrogate where she had been staying under an assumed name. Needless to say, her disappearance made national news and led to a nationwide search. To this day there is no public knowledge of the events that transpired over those eleven days.

As the story begins we meet Colonel Archibald (Archie) Christie who is embroiled in an affair with Miss Nan O’Dea. Agatha is aware of the relationship between Nan, whom she knows and her husband show more Archie but remains hopeful that her marriage can be saved.

“She loved her husband. After twelve years of marriage, she loved him blindly and hopefully, as if in her thirty-six years of life she’d learned nothing about the world.”

Archie, leaving on a weekend with Nan, informs Agatha of his intentions to leave her and end their marriage. Shocked and heartbroken, Agatha packs her bags and drives off in her car leaving her daughter with Honoria, her secretary and her daughter’s nanny, and a note for Archie. She is nowhere to be found and subsequently, the discovery of her abandoned car leads to a nationwide search for the missing author. Archie is distraught, the police get involved, the disappearance makes national news with famous figures like Dorothy Sayers and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also contributing to the efforts. Nan is asked to lay low for sake of public image. She travels to Harrogate and books a stay at the Bellefort Hotel and Spa where we meet a host of interesting characters and another mystery is introduced into the narrative.

The story is narrated by Archie’s mistress Miss Nan O’Dea (a character based on Ms. Nancy Neele who would late become Archie Christie's second wife). The timeline shifts between the past and present with much of the past narrative focused on Nan’s story beginning from her early years with her family in England, summers spent in Ireland on her Uncle’s farm and her first love Finbarr Mahoney and gradually we are made aware of how her past ties in with her relationship with the Christies and the events unfolding in the present. The present-day narrative (also told from Nan’s POV) follows Nan , Agatha and all the other characters through the duration of Ms. Christie’s disappearance.

“In the history of the world there’s been one story a man tells his mistress. He doesn’t love his wife, perhaps never loved her at all. There’s been no sex for years, not a whisper of it. His marriage is absent passion, absent affection, absent joy. A barren and miserable place. He stays for the children, or for money, or for propriety. It’s a matter of convenience. The new lover is his only respite.”

This story, for the most part, revolves around the themes of love, marriage, infidelity and revenge. I found the element of mystery within a mystery quite interesting. In fact, I enjoyed this second mystery (reminiscent of Agatha Christie's work) more than the primary narrative. I would have enjoyed this novel more had there been more focus on Agatha’s story. Though the book is titled "The Christie Affair”, at times it seemed Agatha Christie was in a supporting role with Nan O’ Dea as the protagonist of the novel. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but in which case, I would say the title of the book is more than a tad misleading. Having said that, this is a well written novel with engaging characters and backstories that give us a window into the life and times in pre and post-WWI England, a heartbreaking account of how unwed mothers were treated in the convents of Ireland (there is also a mention of the infamous Magdalene Laundries) and of course an interesting though fictitious take on what the famous author was up to while the whole country was searching for her. 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.

When Agatha Christie was asked why/where she disappeared, she said she couldn't remember and stuck to that for the rest of her life. What an opening, then for a book like this, a complete imaging of what transpired during those 11 days. And to make the narrator be the mistress of Christie's husband and a woman you come to truly care about (at least I did) was a brilliant stroke. The effect was a romance, historical fiction, a detective whodunit, and a revenge novel. Anyone who was hoping for the truth behind Christie's disappearance should have done their homework; there isn't any news. She never said ANYTHING about it. So, yes, one must suspend her disbelief when reading this because it is FICTION extremely and loosely based on a few show more facts. That's why I enjoyed it for what it was. In reading some of the reviews, I'm amazed how many people wanted a REAL book. Without Christie or her husband or the real "Nan" saying much, the speculation door is wide open. show less