I could not get into this book. I read about 20% and gave up. I found it rather boring. Although obviously very well researched, this reads more like a dissertation rather than a biography for "regular" readers.

I was so hoping to like this book because I love reading books by Agatha Christie,but for some reason this boom just didn't work for me at all, it just didn't bring to life the person Agatha Christie seemed to be.

Agatha Christie was a author I began reading as a young child. While others were struggling with Nancy Drew I was a years ahead speed reader addicted to Christie novels. Having grown up on reading all her books I have a deep regard for Agatha Christie as a person and was thrilled to receive this review book from the publisher.
Laura Thompson is a brilliant biographer, I am so glad she wrote this definitive book about my favorite mysterious author.
Christie's books are still the most popular in the mystery arena and remain my favorite. But Christie although a popular author even today was herself a mystery and a very private person. Thompson goes into depth about the mystery behind the woman, about the Edwardian times in which Christie grew up, her relationships, and investigates the many mysteries still surrounding Christie's life, most notably, her eleven-day disappearance in 1926.
That disappearance is discussed fully here and I found the topic very interesting. It was a pivotal time in her life and her disappearance led to some of her best work. So I appreciated the authors attention to that time in the life of Agatha Christie.
After reading and studying this book, pouring over it and reading it again! I found it to be a GREAT Agatha Christie biography. I am grateful to have received it as a ARC and my opinions are my own. I will be buying copies for friends that are Christie Fans as well as myself for my Christie collection. Thank you to the publisher. I highly recommend this book for all fans of Agatha Christie. Well Done to the author.

Reading this was quite an undertaking! No one can accuse author Laura Thompson of not doing her research. While I learned much about Agatha Christie’s life that I did not know, I think the chapter about her disappearance was the most interesting. How ironic that even today, there is still somewhat of a mystery about the details of that disappearance.

The book covers Agatha’s life from childhood to death. Her contribution to plays, poems and other literature was prolific and Thompson made much use of it throughout the book. In fact, Thompson added so many excerpts from Christie’s writing that I sometimes felt like abandoning the biography to read Christie’s books.

I felt it was a bit presumptuous that Thompson so often assumed that Agatha viewed life as some of her characters or that Agatha was basing certain characters on her own life. Many times, I wished that Thompson had just presented the facts and not taken a detour into Christie’s writing that made assumptions about how she felt.

At times, the chronology was confusing and much of the information redundant. I felt the book could have been streamlined a bit to make for a smoother, more interesting read. I also would have liked to have seen more details about her life during World War II and in her later years.

Overall, the research was excellent and reading this has definitely motivated me to want to read more of Agatha Christie’s work.

Many thanks to NetGally and Pegasus Books for providing me with an advance copy.

I  recieved a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

There was lots of information and a lot of the authors opinions. Overall it was an alright book.

Lots of information on Dame Agatha's life. However, I felt the author's opinions got in the way of the story.