Thank you NetGalley and St Martins Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.⁣
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In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days after quarreling with her husband who was having an affair & wanted a divorce. After a nationwide manhunt, she was discovered at a hotel using the name of her husband’s mistress. She claimed to have no memory of the experience and to this day the event remains a complete mystery.⁣
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Nina de Gramont attempts to provide a depiction of this mystery through the eyes of Christie’s husband’s fictionalized mistress, Nan. Her book was by turns intriguing, frustrating, satisfying, and just plain unhinged. The author gets points for creativity but the story she’s written has very little to do with Agatha Christie.
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The decision to have Nan narrate in first person was a bit of a stretch. She recounts intimate details of other people’s experiences as if she could read their minds. The author plays fast and loose with fictionalizing other characters to create a narrative that has only the barest connection to reality. It’s one thing to invent an inspector and remix Agatha’s family, but I was rather outraged by de Gramont’s characterization of the very real Dorothy L. Sayers as a wannabe medium (the total opposite of real life!). ⁣
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I went in expecting more Agatha but instead what this book was really about was the atrocities committed by the Irish Catholic Church against women and children during this era. I agree that this is an important story to tell, but again I’m rather baffled to find it in a book advertised as an Agatha Christie story. The resolution of the mystery was satisfying which helped save the book for me (although I guessed 80% of the resolution well before the end), but there came a point when I was actively rolling my eyes at the author’s decisions. ⁣
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I’m sure others may find value in this book but I want to make sure you’re all warned as to the disturbing content it discusses so you’re not blindsided as I was. The crimes committed by the Irish Church are unfortunately very real. However, nothing about this Agatha Christie is remotely plausible.

TW: graphic scene of sexual assault, child neglect and kidnapping, physical abuse, and suicidal ideation.

The Christie Affair is a fictionalized account of Agatha Christie's failing marriage, her husband's mistress, and her mysterious eleven-day disappearance. This was mostly told from the perspective of Nan O'Dea, Archie Christie's mistress. For me, this was a slow burn and the story really picked up at around 70% into the book. I found it confusing at times in certain chapters to determine who was telling the story. I did like how everything was eventually revealed and all of the background of Nan's story began to click into place. There were things revealed that I didn't see coming and I really enjoyed that. I never knew about Agatha Christie's real-life disappearance and was intrigued to learn more about it. Overall, this was an interesting historical fiction/romance/mystery read.

The Christie Affair is a fictional take on the real life Agatha Christie 11-day disappearance in 1926. It plays out like one of her own murder mysteries. The plot is filled with secrets, revenge, and suspense. The story is mistress Nan O’Dea’s as much as it is Agatha’s. More fiction than historical, but it’s a stylish, clever and highly entertaining read. A must read for those who enjoy historical fiction and/or literary mysteries.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

An absolute must read. Compulsively readable because of the fascinating subject. Will be one of the top books of 2022 so pick up a copy of this book and prepare to be dazzled. Happy reading!

n 1926 Agatha Christie went missing after her husband, Archie asked for a divorce. Archie was in love with another woman. She turned up in Yorkshire claiming amnesia.
This is the fictionalized version of that event as told by Archie's mistress, here fictionalized as Nan O'Dea instead of Nancy Neele. Nan has secrets, lots of secrets. There is a method to her madness of becoming Archie's mistress. The story is written in both Nan's past and her current circumstances. It has a lot of twists and turns and I was surprised by most of them. Your heart will break for most of the characters except maybe Archie.

THE CHRISTIE AFFAIR by Nina de Gramont is a solid historical mystery. It’s about the disappearance of Agatha Christie and how her husband’s mistress fits into this mystery. Ultimately a quick read (I finished this book in 3 days) but in the end I just didn’t love it. Historical fiction can be so hit or miss for me.
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What I liked:
- the setting of London in 1926 and being immersed in the world of the rich and famous Agatha Christie and her family
- the structured alternating timeline
- fast pace with short chapters
- mystery elements similar to classic mystery novels
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What I didn’t like:
- the narration and point of view felt disjointed
- the foreshadowing was too extreme
- many parts describing the mistress’s backstory were quite boring to me and it felt at odds to learn to like this character who was in opposition to the beloved character of Agatha Christie
- romance was lacking
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It was still fun to read this fresh take on Agatha Christie since I enjoyed several of her books including The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Murder on the Orient Express.

3.75 stars

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont is a clever novel of historical fiction built around Agatha Christie’s mysterious disappearance for 11 days in 1926. This book is an ambitious undertaking as it tackles a subject that has been explored many times in other works of fiction and documentaries and, to a certain extent it works as a what-if scenario involving a celebrated author and her marital woes.
The story is told from the first person POV of Nan O’Dea, a thinly disguised Nancy Neele, who was Archie Christie’s real life mistress and, eventually, his wife. Nan inserts herself in the Christies’ lives, focusing on claiming Archie for herself. In a rambling, sometimes confusing, tale, the story evolves in two timelines, Before and The Disappearance, with Nan’s back story central to the reasons for her actions and the murder mystery embedded in the story. The plot covers a lot of territory, with commentary on Irish nuns, priests, abuse, workhouses, and the “Age of Disappearing Women.” Nan, the protagonist, is a conundrum as she claims to like Agatha, calling her tender-hearted, and then proceeds to being horribly non-supportive of Agatha, her friend, by seducing Archie. Despite the title, Agatha is not really the focus of the story, but she is written as a very sympathetic character, with a playful, youthful side, in contrast to her usual depiction as having a cool upper-crust demeanor.
In most of the novel there is lovely, descriptive writing, with touches of wit and wry observations about famous people of the era. Perplexingly, there are passages with staccato, incomplete sentences and daydream-like detours, which I found distracting. I also struggled a bit with some abrupt shifts in POV—first person to third person, suddenly reverting back to first person in the same few pages without obvious chapter breaks.
Overall, this is a very imaginative tale of what could have happened during those 11 days Agatha Christie went “missing”. It is unique in its approach, enjoyably romantic, and definitely worth reading!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

I honestly don't know how I feel about this one. I really liked the author's writing style. She pulled me in and really made the story come to life. Both Nan and Agatha are flawed women with strengths and weaknesses which I appreciated.

There are two timelines in this book. One involves Nan as a teenager and a young woman and the other starts shortly before Agatha Christie's disappearance. Nan is the narrator of both stories and has a voice that is a mix of vulnerable and jaded which is interesting. It felt like this was really two books. While Nan's earlier story is tragic and does provide backstory for her I was always so relieved when we went back to Agatha's story. Nan's story was so heavy and tragic that while I was pulled in it was much more distressing then I was looking for. As well it felt much more developed then the story of Agatha's disappearance which was my main draw to the book.

I really enjoyed this author's writing style and love this concept. While this didn't end up being the story I was really looking for I think it will appeal to many other readers who are looking for a historical read that touches on darker issues and not so much for the Agatha Christie story.

There was hesitation on my part as to whether or not I wanted to read The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont. Like many, I was familiar with the reporting of Agatha Christie’s eleven day disappearance, which remains a mystery to this day. To say that I was surprised by this novel is an understatement. The author tells a fictional story surrounding the Christie mystery by using subjects such as the sexual mores of the early twentieth century, love affairs gone wrong, the First World War, unwed motherhood, murders, extra-marital affairs, and so much more. This is such a convoluted, mysterious blend of several characters’ lives that the reader is treated to an original and mesmerizing tale. It becomes difficult to remember that this is a work of fiction. Giving more details about this novel would give away information that readers will enjoy discovering for themselves. This is a book for those readers who like their mysteries with a slice of personal drama. Nina de Gramont has taken an actual event and written a fascinating book of fiction around it. I look forward to reading more by this author. Highly recommended. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Gorgeous cover! I could not wait to see what was under this five star cover. I liked the premise of Nina de Gramont’s story of the eleven days in 1926 when Agatha Christie went missing. Agatha’s husband has been having an affair with Nan O’Dea. He tells Agatha about the affair. Agatha leaves her daughter, Teddy with Honoria who is the nanny and doubles as Agatha’s secretary. The story is told through Nan. For me, it gets confusing at times for the first thirty percent of the book to the point I stopped reading for a week and decided to start again. I AM SO GLAD THAT I DID. After starting again, I figured out the author’s style. We are introduced to lots of characters who have secrets, are murdered, have love interests….I loved the last 40% of the book as secrets are revealed at several points. Nina de Gramont was very clever with the twists and turns as I DID NOT see them coming. My thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. The opinions in the review are my own.

This story starts on the day Agatha Christie’s husband tells her he wants a divorce and continues through Agatha’s 11 day disappearance - only with a twist. The entire story is told from the mistress’s point of view.

I didn’t know much about Agatha Christie’s life going into this one so I had to do a lot of research and this book really deviated from reality in many ways, especially with that big twist towards the end. Because of that, I think I would have liked this even more if it had been about fictional characters.

That being said, this one was intriguing and kept me guessing. I thought it was really unique that it was told from the perspective of the mistress and how their lives were so intertwined in ways I would have never expected. There were some big twists that surprised me and this really was a wild ride of a book!

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC: 3.5 rounded up. The author created a somewhat elaborate story to explain Agatha Christie's disappearance which involves other romances, unwed pregnancy, crimes, coincidence--and acknowledges it is fiction--even within the story. It's well written, if a bit long. The story is told from the perspective of the mistress, Nan, and does switch up the narrative from first person to third without explanation, which creates some confusion. The truth is unknown and this version is fiction, which is clearly stated. It was enjoyable and for historical fiction, mystery, popular fiction--well realized characters.

I really wanted to like this book but I was unfortunately too confused. I feel like there were plot holes that the author attempted to hide with the use of smoke and mirrors, thus being the ever changing narration perspective and not-fully-chronological dual timelines. I felt like I was being asked to suspend too much belief, and this was acknowledged by our narrator when she said that it may seem like there's details she shouldn't know but she's confident in them after piecing together other's stories. I really wanted to like this book. I just spent too much time wondering if I missed something or whose imagined thoughts we were in to really enjoy it.

Agatha Christie was my first adult mystery writer that I read and I read them all with great pleasure. It was my mother's collection and our local librarian thought I was too young for them. Decades later each mystery has been read many times. What really caught my attention was the woman who penned all of those mysteries. I read her romances, her non fiction and her autobiography - I read it all. Needless to say, I was eager to read this latest book and I wasn't disappointed.
Agatha never divulged the story of those missing 11 days so speculation runs rampant in many books. Here we have the POV of the home wrecker, Nan O'Dea (based on Nancy Neele, the other woman and second wife of Archie Christie). As this is speculative fiction, Nan shares her imagination as to what happened during those missing days. It's well written, has a good mystery in it and it was a very enjoyable reading escape. My only complaint has to be that Agatha wasn't in the story enough for me.
My thanks to the publisher St. Martin's Press and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

WOW!! What an imaginative reimagining of the eleven days Agatha Christie went missing. Based on actual events, the author has crafted a fantastical mystery to account for what happened during the eleven days Christie disappeared in 1926. Full of great historical detail (including the Irish Magdalene Houses), this story has it all! Love, loss, infidelity, murder, vengeance and more! I loved that the story was told largely from Arthur Christie's mistress's perspective. Highly recommended. This is one of the best historical mystery thrillers I've read in a long time. My only complaint was that I thought it dragged a bit in the middle. Much thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my advance review copy.

I did not expect this book to bring me the emotions it did.  I was expecting a book centering around Agatha Christie, but really she is almost a side character in a much larger and complex story about things much worse than her disappearance for 11 days. This book did have a slow start and I was waiting for the mystery and the secrets and I was wondering why we were getting some seemingly extraneous details. I was waiting for the story from Agatha's perspective, until I realized what this book was truly becoming.  About halfway through I was hooked by the flashbacks (and so emotional about them) and from there things really picked up.  So many twists and surprises along the way; both in action and in the feelings of the characters involved. I loved Nan's narration style, she brings her own flare to telling the events of these days after the fact. There were different romance aspects that contrasted to each other and I really enjoyed. Overall, a slow start, but if you love historical fiction then I highly recommending sticking with it and you may even end the book with tears in your eyes as I did.

In 1926, an almost-famous Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days. In this vividly-imagined novel, Nina de Gramont fills in the blanks of those missing days.

The story focuses more on Archie Christie’s mistress — and later his second wife. And in many ways her story is more interesting.

Recommended for Agatha Christie fans , and for all fans of domestic drama.

3.5 stars

Every mystery book lover knows Agatha Christie, the best-selling English author who crafted ingenious plots for her many whodunits. Christie had a mystery in her own life as well.

The facts are as follows: In December, 1926 Agatha's husband Archie Christie announced he was divorcing Agatha to marry his mistress. The next day Agatha vanished, and her car - containing a suitcase with her clothes - was found perched above a chalk quarry.

There was a hue and cry throughout England, and a massive police search for the missing writer. Eleven days later Agatha was found in a hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire, claiming she couldn't remember what happened.....and Agatha stuck to that story for the rest of her life

In this book, author Nina de Gramont fashions a fictional tale about Agatha's disappearance.

*****

The story is narrated by Nan O'Dea, the 'other woman' in Archie Christie's life.

Agatha Christie's husband of twelve years, Archie Christie, is besotted with Nan O'Dea - with whom he's been having an affair for a couple of years. In December 1926 Archie tells Agatha he wants a divorce, as he's determined to marry Nan. Upper class British women like Agatha are expected to keep a stiff upper lip, but Agatha is devastated. The next day Agatha vanishes, leaving the Christie's school age daughter Teddy in the care of her nanny.

Agatha is already a famous writer, and her disappearance reverberates throughout Great Britain. Police around the country are put on alert, and Agatha's picture is in newspapers everywhere. Many people, including Archie, fear that Agatha is dead, perhaps having taken her own life.

Nan is fully aware of the pain she's caused Agatha, with whom she's well acquainted. Nan and the Christies travel in some of the same social circles, and Nan has been a guest in the Christies' home. Nevertheless Nan purposely set out to wrest Archie away from Agatha, for reasons of her own.

Much of the book is Nan's backstory, which is rather tragic. Nan was raised in a working class family in England, and spent many summers with relatives in Ireland, working on their farm. As a girl, Nan lost a beloved older sister and fell in love with an Irish boy called Finbarr, who went off to fight in World War I. Finbarr survived the fighting but came down with the terrible Spanish Flu, and - for various reasons - this was dreadful for Nan. Nan uses this history to justify breaking up the Christies' marriage.

In any case, Nan makes herself scarce when Agatha disappears, since Archie doesn't want Nan drawn into a public scandal. So Nan checks into a classy hotel/spa in Harrogate. As luck would have it, a husband and wife in the resort die under suspicious circumstances while Nan is in residence. A policeman named Chilton, who's in the area searching for Agatha Christie, is assigned to investigate the deaths of the couple, which at first glance looks like a murder-suicide.

Meanwhile, Agatha also happens to be in the vicinity of Harrogate, having an adventure of her own. Agatha tries to stay under the radar, but some people think she looks a lot like that writer whose photo is in the newspaper. 😃 After eleven days Agatha is found, none the worse for wear except she has 'amnesia' about her disappearance. To say more would be a spoiler.

In some ways the plot mimics a REAL Agatha Christie story, with plenty of surprises and twists, and an unexpected murderer revealed at the climax.

I enjoyed the story but didn't like most of the main characters - including Agatha, Archie, and Nan - who are self-serving and badly behaved. I do applaud the book for addressing problems faced by women of the time, many of whom had little control over their own lives.

Thanks to Netgalley, Nina de Gramont, and Macmillan Audio for a copy of the book.

An odd factionalized account of an absence that in life was much stranger than fiction. Magically descriptive with vivid chacterization of a woman who disappears after her husband coldly tells her he’s leaving, with his mistress, for a weekend away, and he doesn’t want his wife to join him. She absconds using the name of the mistress for her adventure accompanied by the father of her child, joined by the mistress

I didn't quite know what to expect when I requested this book. I do find the mystery of Agatha Christie's disappearance really intriguing. As I started to read the novel, I thought this was going to be a domestic drama about how society women in the 1920's had to put up with entitled men. And while this was a theme in the book, there was so much more going on.

There are really two stories happening at once. We do follow Agatha as she disappears for about ten days. But the far more interesting story is that of Archie Christie's mistress, Nan O'Dea. While in reality there was no Nan O'Dea (he did leave Agatha for a woman named Nancy Neele), the author creates a character that is so complete, I had to hit Google to see if this was actually Archie's mistress. As we learn about Nan's backstory, we begin to understand that her reasons for being with Archie are greater than just finding a well-heeled husband.

Then the book takes another turn. Someone dies at the hotel where both Agatha and Nan are staying. Was it just a tragic accident... Or was it Murder? Yes, this book does become a murder mystery. Predictable? A bit. But there were lots of twists and turns that made this solving this crime fun to follow. This was both a sharp commentary on what the lives of women were like in Great Britain in the 1920's, and a clever mystery that I think Agatha Christie would have loved.

What I Liked:

Characters:

Agatha, in the time when the book takes place, is not yet a famous novelist. Although she is starting to publish a few books, her husband Archie doesn't really take her seriously. Since we, the readers, know how successful she will eventually be, we cannot help but see the irony of just how little he thinks of her. We know Agatha will get the last laugh. But, we can also see how deeply his actions affect his wife. Women, especially those in "Society", were expected to put up with infidelity. When Archie leaves Agatha, he has the gall to tell her not to make a scene so as not to hurt his mistress's reputation!

At first, Agatha is devastated by the betrayal. She leaves to give herself time to think. What will she be if she is not Archie's wife? It felt like her life was over. I loved that she finally realized that she was better off without him.

Nan is Archie's mistress. Usually, I have very little sympathy for women who get involved with married men. But, the author made Nan such a whole character, I eventually understood why she made the choices she did. Nan's backstory goes all the way back to her childhood, and her first love. Their story is a tragedy that was probably very common ,all due to WWI.

Storytelling:

The storytelling is a slow burn. There are many flashbacks in the story that explain who the characters are. At first I found this a bit frustrating. What does Ireland have to do with the story? But, everything is done with a purpose. Much like all the little details in Agatha Christie novels. They all have meaning. This tactic really reeled me in and made me heavily invested in the outcome of the story.

Mystery:

What book about Agatha Christie would be complete without a death! At first, it appears that Agatha is dead, and Archie is the prime suspect. And his plan to keep his affair out of the spotlight fails spectacularly. I was very happy to see this slime-ball squirm.

Then there are two deaths at the spa where Agatha (and Nan) are staying. There are many small details in the scenes leading up to the deaths that become important later in the story. The mystery is what ties all the stories of the book together. This was so like an Agatha Christie mystery which made it incredibly entertaining, and satisfying.