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The prolific and renowned mystery writer Agatha Christie went missing for 11 days in 1926. Her husband, Archie, had been having an affair and wanted a divorce. She had no memory of what happened in those days, even as thousands of police officers and volunteered looked for her. In this novel, Nina de Gramont imagines what happened during that time.
The Christie Affair is told from the point of view of Archie’s mistress, Nan. The story alternates between the events right before, during and after Agatha’s disappearance in 1926 and Nan’s early life, including a devastating experience almost a decade earlier.
For probably two-thirds of the book, I could not figure out why the story primarily focused on Nan and spent so much time on her past. It seemed completely a different plot than I expected from a book supposedly about the mystery of Agatha Christie’s disappearance. Rather than the story feeling like a mystery that would be solved, it felt more like I’d been plopped into a different story than I was promised. The “mystery” (actually, there were two) didn’t really seem to be introduced early on, so it read like a historical fiction book about (*subject I won’t share so I won’t spoil the plot*). So by the time I got to the end, I did figure out what the mysteries were, and their resolutions, but it didn’t feel like a mystery book.
Having said that, however, it is a heart-wrenching story about (redacted subject). And it was well-written. At the end, it made so much sense why the narrator was doing what she was doing. However, I think I’d have enjoyed more an entirely different imagined story about what happened to Agatha Christie during her disappearance. This historical fiction mystery book, while in title about the mystery writer, doesn’t put the writer into a mystery story that better fits the style of her many excellent books.
Rated: Moderate (it could go almost mild). Profanity includes fewer than 10 uses of mild language and a few instances of the name of Deity in vain. There are 3 uses of British (bl-) profanity. Sexual content includes two scenes in which brief references are made to sexual behavior and body parts, as well as a number of other times where sex is occurring but there are almost no details past kissing, or it’s “off-screen.” A man has a two-year affair, and a woman has a very brief affair while she is still married.
