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A review by inthefallstateofmind
The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Child death, and Sexual assault