Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Christie Affair

An interesting premise---a fictionalized account of what could've happened during the mysterious 11-day disappearance of author Agatha Christie in December 1926. This book is told from the perspective of Nan, Christie's husband's mistress---a creative but unreliable viewpoint. It combines the two women's stories and leads to quite a convoluted book! I was really enjoying Nan's storyline until everything got crossed, and it all just seemed too contrived. I'm not familiar with Christie's writing but I can't help but wonder if this author was trying to pay homage to Christie's formulas.

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btodd12's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

People love or hate this book, but I’m in the middle. I don’t care that it is not historically accurate, and I liked how most of the mysteries got resolved in the end. But the alternative timeline stories seemed so wildly unrelated for so long and changed the mood of the book so drastically that I couldn’t even tell that I was reading the same book about Agatha Christie’s disappearance.

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lhodgson26's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I was excited about this book but to be honest it wasn't until 3/4 of the way through I started to really enjoy it and appreciate how good it actually is. As its told from Nan's perspective but from the future so you know quite early on that she ends up with Archie and Agatha was fine. All the different characters and timing did get a bit confusing but the further the book went on the more it became clear. It was a murder mystery with Nan at the centre and the truth of why she really wanted to marry Archie. It was heartbreaking the story which is sadly true for so many young women who were forced to give up their children and be abused by the church. It was also the story of the impact of the war and how many men were scared from their experiences. Even though it was fiction ot encamped a lot of the truth. The remaining questions of who really Teddy belonged to is quite infuriating at the same time it's nice that both Agatha and Nan can share her. Even though they were enemies sleeping with the same man they understood enough to have compassion and empathy to let Nan at leas get away with murder.

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mlleblanc10's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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blancake's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Was Agatha Christie really necessary here?
I think I would enjoy it more if it were about some completely fictional people, especially since some very bold statements were made about and by real people who still have very much living relatives and offsprings. This made me quite uncomfortable while reading.

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inthefallstateofmind's review against another edition

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4.0

I am a fan of Agatha Christie's work and I have listened to a podcast about her life so I knew about the mysterious days that she went missing which she never spoke of. Her answer to questions about that time was always that she couldn't remember what happened. So learning that the premise of The Christie Affair was a fictional take on what happened during those missing days, I was very intrigued. With that being said, I haven't extensively looked into Agatha's history so as for what is really based on truth in this book, I can't say. I read it as though liberties were taken with the majority of the story.

The book is narrated from the POV of Agatha's husband's (Archie) mistress, Nan O'Dea. Nan is determined to steal Archie from Agatha even after being confronted by Agatha herself. The night that Archie finally tells Agatha that he is leaving her for Nan, Agatha packs a suitcase, grabs her typewriter, and disappears in her car. However, the car is later found on the side of the road and Agatha is nowhere in sight. The reader goes back and forth between this current time where the whole country is searching for Agatha and Nan is laying low at a luxury hotel and Nan's past where she fell in love with an Irish boy who was sent to fight in the War. After he returned, Nan got pregnant, but her love falls deathly ill before they could be married. The boy's parents send Nan off to a convent for unwed mothers where she is starved, forced to do backbreaking labor, and witnesses the physical and sexual abuse of other girls. After giving birth to her baby, the little girl is quickly given to a family without Nan's knowledge. Nan makes it her mission to find her child again.

There are a lot of moving parts and people in The Christie Affair and surprisingly not much of it has to do with Agatha Christie herself. While it uses her story as a basis, this is really a book about fictional character Nan O'Dea. In the beginning I wasn't sure how I would feel about this or her character, but Nina de Gramont did a great job at building Nan's character and getting you to feel sympathetic to a her despite doing some rather unfavorable things. Her story is actually the strongest in my opinion. Agatha is in the story and she plays a role, but don't go into it feeling like she is going to be a focal point. One thing that I think The Christie Affair could have benefited from was multiple POV narrators. Nan tells the whole story including other character's activities and thoughts at times when she wasn't there. Nan explains in the book how that was possible, but I think actually getting to hear the character's thoughts from their own POV would have allowed de Gramont the ability to dive deeper into each other psyches.

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