A review by vavita
Absent in the Spring by Mary Westmacott, Agatha Christie

4.0

Agatha Christie said that Absent in the spring was the most personal book she published. – Extract from her biography: “Shortly after that, I wrote the one book that has satisfied me completely. It was a new Mary Westmacott, the book that I had always wanted to write, that had been clear in my mind. It was the picture of a woman with a complete image of herself, of what she was, but about which she was completely mistaken.”
I wonder if that is how she felt about her first marriage. If she thought they were completely happy and in love, had the perfect family… If she, years after her divorce, realized how nothing really was as she had assumed, how she had missed details, how she had “known” things and had “forgotten” them.
I don’t think I would have enjoyed this book without having read her bio first. The main character is a pain. She has only one chapter of absolution, only one chapter when you root for her. But still, the book is wonderfully written. I was never bored.