The Christie Affair

The Christie Affair

Nina de Gramont

Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 4.5Characters: 3.5Plot: 4.0

Why would the world's most famous mystery writer disappear for eleven days? What makes a woman desperate enough to destroy another woman's marriage? How deeply can a person crave revenge? In 1925, Miss Nan O’Dea infiltrated the wealthy, rarefied world of author Agatha Christie and her husband, Archie. In every way, she became a part of their life––first, both Christies. Then, just Archie. Soon, Nan became Archie’s mistress, luring him away from his devoted wife, desperate to marry him. Nan’s plot didn’t begin the day she met Archie and Agatha. It began decades before, in Ireland, when Nan was a young girl. She and the man she loved were a star-crossed couple who were destined to be together––until the Great War, a pandemic, and shameful secrets tore them apart. Then acts of unspeakable cruelty kept them separated. What drives someone to murder? What will someone do in the name of love? What kind of crime can someone never forgive? Nina de Gramont’s brilliant, unforgettable novel explores these questions and more.


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  • Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    Most of it was engaging, but I wasn’t enamored of some of the characterization of Christie and her (entirely fictional) actions. The story is really about the other woman and how she became the other woman, so Christie seems squeezed into a narrative box.

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  • Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    This book had been an anticipated release so i had high hopes, unfortunately it did not deliver. The POV character was the mistress of Agatha Christie's husband, a real person, however she was essentially a fictional character in this story. Her name had been changed as had her backstory, adding an unnecessarily tragic backstory that was, however, crucial to the plot as it had been written. The book follows the 10 days Agatha Christie spent missing, a time she never spoke of. I knew the events would be fictional as no one knew the story, I was not expecting the story to centre so closely around so many other fictional events and characters making me wonder why this had been centred around Christie in the first place. Had this been an entirely fictional Historical Fiction book i would not have minded it as much. 
    The only real issue i had that isn't connected to the problems caused by using real people was the faux omniscient and thus unreliable narrator of the POV character. It was interesting if annoying, would have preferred a simple POV change rather than acting like the POV character somehow knew all of this was happening and what everyone was thinking. I also felt that this book never truly explored the various trauma's held within to the extent it shoudl, merely using them as set dressing, character motivations and pieces. in the mystery. 
    Overall, not a story i would recommend.

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  • Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 4.5Characters: 3.5Plot: 4.0

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