This was one of my most anticipated books for 2022. While it was interesting, it wasn't nearly as captivating as I had hoped it would be. The story focuses mostly on Nan O'Dea, the mistress of Agatha Christie's husband, Archie. Agatha Christie and the 11 days she went missing in 1926 are used merely as a way to tell the story of Nan and how/why she became Archie's mistress. While the idea behind the story was intriguing, I wasn't that interested in Nan's story. All in all, it was a good book but definitely a disappointment given my excitement for it.

I immediately loved the idea of this book. The cover is gorgeous and the topic is intriguing.

This book is based on a true story - In April 1926, Agatha Christie's mother died and in August of the same year her husband, Archie, asked for a divorce because he had fallen in love with his mistress. Then, on December 3rd, Agatha and Archie had an argument when he planned to go away for a weekend to visit friends without her. Later that evening Agatha disappeared. There was an extensive search and a lot of news coverage around her disappearance. When she was found at a hotel 11 days later she claimed no memory of events and never discussed it again, even in her autobiography.

There have been many theories around these 11 missing days, but none have been confirmed. Some claim that she had legitimate memory loss or was in a fugue state. Others believe that she was suffering from depression and planned to commit suicide framing her husband's mistress for her murder. Others claimed that it was a publicity stunt for her writing or meant to embarrass her husband. No one will ever know the truth for certain as Agatha kept these secrets until her passing in 1976.

Nina de Gramont made an interesting decision in choosing to tell this particular story from the perspective of the mistress, Nan. She introduced what I believe is a completely new theory to the mix, using Nan's backstory as a way to explain why she made a conscious decision to steal away Agatha's husband as well as why Agatha left and chose not to discuss it. Nan tells us her backstory, as well as the 1926 timeline including Archie and Agatha's stories while speaking directly to the reader. I like the way this first person narrative made you feel a part of the story.

I know that Nan's backstory was supposed to make us sympathetic to her, but I just couldn't quite get there. I felt for her with all she went through, but it still didn't justify what she was doing. With that said, I didn't really like any of the main characters, Archie least of all.

In addition to the main disappearance story, de Gramont included a different mystery set at the hotel in 1926. The characters in this part of the book felt somewhat shallow to me and it wasn't quite as enjoyable as the rest. This storyline is, of course, needed to help explain other parts of the story, but I had difficulty fully connecting with it.

I enjoyed this story quite a bit, even without particularly caring for the characters or agreeing with their decisions. I do think that de Gramont took many liberties with the story to make it work, but the bones of the story were good. Unfortunately, I had all the twists figured out by about 60%. Nothing that happened after that point was very surprising to me, so while I did enjoy the story I can't say that I loved it. However, in the story's defense, I listened with my husband and when I told him all of my theories, he hadn't made the same connections, so maybe I've just read too many similar books recently. For reference, my husband is giving the book 5★.

3.5★ for me
#NetGalley #TheChristieAffair #NinaDeGramont

The Christie Affair is certainly fiction but a work that is based on an intriguing historical event. By Nina de Gramont it looks at those events around Agatha Christie’s disappearance for 11 days in 1926. Told from a character seemingly based on Archie Christie's mistress and second wife this book puts quite on spin on those events known and still unknown to this day.

Nan O'Dea's story is one in which Christie’s marriage is destroyed but she is not totally unkind in her depiction of Agatha Christie. To assume that they could have been friends in another setting is a stretch but who knows.

Interesting, adding to the speculation of those days that Christie was “missing.” I enjoyed the book always believing that Agatha Christie was even more of a mystery than the books that she wrote.

An ARC of the book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley which I voluntarily chose to read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"Where were you?"
"I can't remember."

The disappearance of Agatha Christie is a story many know and remember.
A woman lost for 11 days only to be found with a sense of trauma and amnesia.

But what drove her to flee?

An affair between her husband Archie, and mistress Nan, spark a grieving wife to run away without a plan.

Nan on the other hand, has a story. One that unfurls into grief of her own with a sprinkle of hope of starting over.

I loved this book. Nina da Gramont was a new author on my radar who didn't disappoint.
She took a take on a a true moment in history and made it something much more.

Read if you love:
-the writing style of Taylor Jenkins Reid
-family drama
-the stories behind what's left after war
-star crossed lovers
-new beginnings
-the power of being a woman, wife, and mother
-the country side of Ireland, and city life of England
-a bit of mystery
-historical fiction

Why I dropped a star:
While this story was based off of a true story, I always struggle with a story that is based around adultery. BUT please know while it is the backdrop and important, it is NOT the romance or even the main focus of this amazing book.

Also the ending felt a bit "strange". I knew Nan was the narrator of her story, along with taking on her own "take" of different character POV, the ending of it almost being her book felt disconnected from the intro into the book. Although I did love the HEA aspect.

TW: some topics include adultery, rape, loss of a child, suicide while none of descriptive

Rating:
story-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
characters-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
steam- while this is a scandal.... this book is less than scandalous

Song- scared by Jeremy Zucker

Thank you St Martin Press for my Arc. I truly enjoyed it.

The lush green fields extended as far as her eye could see. The blue skies, dotted by fluffy white clouds, filled her with joy. The black and white dog jumped and romped beside her, feeling the happiness she experienced that exuded in this special place. She clutched the pearls around her neck, feeling their weight, a swelling of love in her heart. She hoped he’d join her here soon and that their love would carry on throughout the years with the war safely behind them now.

The Christie Affair is a fictional telling of the true disappearance of Agatha Christie. After finding her husband caught in an adulterous relationship she disappears for days and the whole country seems to be looking for her.

I’m a huge Agatha Christie fan and I was excited to give this book a read, but I must say… I was a bit bored throughout. This book was primarily told through the eyes of Agatha’s husband’s mistress, Nan, and while her history was interesting and heart-breaking to read about… I wanted more to be about Agatha. Agatha seemed to be more of a secondary character in this one.

A tinge of mystery, a scathing history, and a touch of romance… a look into the Queen of mystery that we haven’t seen before. If you’re a fan of Agatha Christie or enjoy a drama filled historical fiction… then you’ll want to try this book out.

Note: Thank you to Netgalley & publishers for allowing me access to this arc in exchange for an honest review! Please note that all opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

As soon as I received my copy of The Christie Affair, I pushed it to the very top of my list so that I could have a review completed before its release date next week.

And let me tell you, I am beyond disappointed.

The Christie Affair -primarily the story based on the true events of Agatha Christie's mysterious disappearance for eleven days in 1926- had the potential to be great, but unfortunately, fell flat.

The Good Things
1. Told from the perspective of Nan Christie -Archie Christie's second wife- each of the characters she encounters is intriguing and well-written. The author does a fantastic job allowing for Nan to offer a character in a way that she sees them, alongside how they are portrayed by others.
2. The cover is absolutely gorgeous. It is eye-catching and fitting for the story.
3. There are a lot of quotable lines, which I suppose is a reflection of the author's writing skills. 


The Bad Things
1. Because the story is told from Nan's point of view, there are parts of the story that seem extremely far-fetched. Yes, she admits on several occasions that she wasn't actually there for some of the events that took place and that her account is merely guesswork, but doing so takes away from the story significantly. Also, how are we supposed to believe that what happened to Agatha is entirely true? It is told from the perspective of her husband's mistress. Plus, from what we are led to understand right off the bat, Nan didn't actually know Agatha that well. (I'm aware this is fiction, but it still needs to be believable).
2. There are a lot of plot holes and certain events that don't entirely make sense. I don't want to delve too far into those out of fear of spoiling things.
3. About 70% of the entire story was either boring or full of useless information, including a lot of Nan's background that had little to do with the main story. In my opinion, took away from the point of the story: to tell where Agatha really was when she disappeared. 


I am giving this two stars because I honestly did not enjoy reading this book. Maybe I had too high of hopes for it, or perhaps I just expected a different kind of story, or maybe, just maybe, the book is unnecessarily overhyped.

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont is brilliant! As an Agatha Christie buff I have read many books about her and those eleven mysterious missing days which she herself claims to have had amnesia and does not remember in 1925. Her own autobiography skips them! But in the Christie Affair, de Gramont gives probably one of the greatest hypotheses to what could have happened to Christie with amazing plot twists and turns, even a murder!

So, the story begins as they all do. Agatha’s husband, Archie asking her for a divorce. He had been having an affair with a young woman named Nan O’Dea whom he has fallen in love with. He would later marry her. There was arguing, (the servants heard it), Archie leaves. Then Agatha disappears leaving letters to Archie and to her daughter’s nanny. Her car is found abandoned.

But the difference with this book is The Christie Affair looks deeper into the mistress’ life and any part she may have played in the drama of the disappearance. Nan O’Dea had a happy childhood, living in England and visiting relatives in Ireland every summer. There she meets a boy and falls madly in love. But he goes off to war, and she a nunnery where she witnesses abuse and tragic loss.

Flash forward to how O’Dea is able to get the attention of Archie and seduce him for reasons which only become known (to the reader) much later. O’Dea was a fixture at the Christie home and Agatha seemed to accept her. O’Dea feeling Agatha did not know of the dalliance with her husband. Oh, how she misjudged Agatha’s intelligence!

This tale goes far beyond what those missing days may have been like for Christie. It also delves into what Nan O’Dea was doing as the world awaited the outcome of the fate of the missing famous writer. How their world’s will collide during that time. What the reader will find out is O’Dea had some haunting secrets of her own which just seemed to coincide with the search for the missing author. Nan O’Dea had been plotting for years to take back what she felt was rightfully hers and no one was going to stop her.

Without giving any of this delicious story away, let me just say that I felt as if I was reading a true Agatha Christie novel filled with mystery, clues and shocking developments! Well done!

Thank you #NetGalley #St.Martin’sPress #TheChristieAffair #NinadeGramont for the advanced copy.

The majority of the world, to this day, knows who Agatha Christie is, even if they've never read a single word that she's written. I must confess that I only recently read, And Then There Were None, a few months ago and enjoyed it even though "locked room" mysteries aren't really my cup of tea. I would like to eventually read more of her works. As someone who is an avid reader, watcher, listener of true crime, and who grew up watching Unsolved Mysteries with my mom, I am fascinated by Agatha Christie's 10-day disappearance in 1928. Disappearance cases are the ones that intrigue me the most, because while most meet an almost certain doom, there is still hope that they can be found, alive and well, living out their lives under a new identity or at the very least, waiting to be rescued. Hope is such a sweet thing. I was drawn to The Christie Affair as it romanticizes what might have taken place during those 10 days she went missing and why. Overall, the book is a fun read that keeps you guessing even if you know some of the real outcomes. What no one knows for certain though is what really happened or why she disappeared as she maintained until her death that she could not remember. Having only read one of her novels, I am no authority on Christie's writing style but it does seem that Gramont tried to emulate her style and it often read like a detective mystery of old. However, there seemed some inconsistencies and disconnect in several parts where it was hard to decide whose point of view she was referencing. She seemed to slip into other points of view other than Nan's whose account it is that we are receiving. A great story has several layers and while this was multi-layered and each layer was interesting in its own way, it felt disjointed in its execution so much that it almost seemed three separate stories rather than one tied together seamlessly. I wanted to love it more than I did but I do think fans of Agatha Christie and historical fiction, in general, will enjoy the story.

DNF: 8%

I really tried to like this one. While I enjoyed the writing style and how things were set up in a nonsensical way, I did not like how the main character broke the fourth wall repeatedly. It just didn't suit the story all that well, personally, and I've decided not to continue.

In The Christie Affair, talented author Nina de Gramont has decided to fill in the blanks reimagining the eleven days of Agatha Christie’s famous disappearance. The story is told from the perspective of Nan O’Dea, a fictionalized version of Archie’s real mistress, Nancy Beele. Agatha, with typewriter in hand, decides to take some time away from home to write and deal with the possible loss of her marriage. While in the British town of Harrogate, Agatha hides out in a country home and Nan stays at a local hotel/spa. Nan meets an interesting group of guests and a murder soon occurs in the hotel.

Through flashbacks, we learn of Nan’s sad background and her devastating losses. While not an overly sympathetic character, we come to understand her and it becomes plausible how a bond develops between Nan and Agatha. Agatha does not believe that Nan loves Archie and discovers why Nan is so determined to become the second Mrs. Christie. This enjoyable book is about the relationship of the two rivals, the love interests who enter the picture during the eleven days and a clever murder mystery, which was my favorite part.

I am normally not a fan of books that create an alternative reality of true history and real people, but the author has created an inventive story that is at its most entertaining when viewed as pure fiction.

After watching Agatha and the Truth of Murder, I was really excited to start Nina de Gramont's novel and see if I could learn more about Agatha and the days she was missing (I hadn't yet started my Internet search of what was known about her disappearance). de Gramont is not the first author to attempt to fill in the blanks for those 11 days. I haven't read the other books so I can't compare them, but I can compare it to the 2018 TV movie. They are pretty different as de Gramont decided to focus as much (and maybe even more) on Archie's mistress.

I was expecting something along of the lines of biographical fiction when I picked up The Christie Affair. It starts off similarly to the movie - Archie tells Agatha he wants a divorce and then they share a tender moment that harkens back to earlier in their marriage. Agatha thinks she has won him back but then he goes off on a weekend trip with his mistress. It infuriates Agatha more than ever because she thought they were reconciling but it was just a last goodbye for him. Agatha decides to leave and runs her car off the road. The car is found and the search begins. The book focuses much more on the search and Archie and his mistress than the movie did.

Soon after starting the book it did not feel as biographical as I had thought it would. It was the introduction of Nan O'Dea as Archie's mistress. From the movie, I thought her name was Nancy and so I started my Internet search for what was really known about Agatha, Archie, Nancy and the 11 days Agatha was missing. Nan O'Dea is fictional character based on Nancy Neele, the real mistress of Archie Christie (they eventually wed in 1928). I didn't find a lot about Nancy so I'm not sure how closely Nan's backstory matched Nancy's real life.

I eventually enjoyed the story but it felt like it was a bait and switch - the reader is drawn to the book (at least this reader) because it is about Agatha Christie and her missing days but then the story focused on this fictional character. I felt like the story could have been just as good if Agatha Christie wasn't part of it - her role could have been filled by another fictional character. Once I gave up on there being in truth in this story I was able to enjoy it as a story of historical fiction.

I felt like this was more of a romance even though there is a murder mystery. (Really could there be a story involving Agatha Christie without there being a murder mystery to solve?)

The story moves from the present (1926) to the past and back again. This method of storytelling can often be confusing when listening to an audiobook. But I had no problem keeping the timelines straight as they are labeled. The chapters that occur during the missing days all start with how many days it has been since Agatha disappeared.

We are given alternating snippets of Nan's past and present until it all ties together in the end. This method was great for Nan's character arc. My feelings toward Nan definitely changed from not liking her to maybe not liking her exactly but I could at least sympathize with her in the end. There was the obvious reason I didn't like her in the beginning - she is breaking up a marriage that appeared to be a loving relationship prior to her). But also there was something she said pretty early on about how she made herself to be exactly what Archie wanted. It rubbed me the wrong way. She is definitely a foil for Agatha in the beginning as Agatha was very much her own person. By the end of the book, though their characters seem to be a little more alike.

I liked how everything tied together in the end. There are several threads that seem unrelated and feel like they are there just to make the world de Gramont created more realistic. But then the reader is given a new piece of the puzzle and the plot becomes less disjointed and I feel like I should have paid more attention to the details of the side threads. This is in a similar vein to how I felt after watching the movie - that there were details I glossed over because I didn't think they were important at the time.

The Christie Affair is a rich story. I don't think it necessarily needed to Agatha Christie, a similar fictional character would have worked just as well. I enjoyed the fictional character of Nan O'Dea. And de Gramont's writing is wonderful - she has definitely penned an intricate story that you will want to pay attention to every detail of.

My review is published at Girl Who Reads - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2022/01/the-disappearance-of-agatha-christie.html

Ever since my teenage years, I've been an Agatha Christie fan, devouring most of her Poirot and Marple books at least once, as well as watching several television series and movies. I began rereading the Marple collection last year and when I'm done in a few months, I'll head back over to Poirot. Once news of Nina de Gramont's book, The Christie Affair, released, I immediately marked it TBR and later grabbed a copy from NetGalley. I was curious how the story would unfold, given it's told from the POV of Agatha's husband's mistress and focuses on the ~10-day disappearance of the famous mystery writer, Agatha Christie, herself.

Let's start with the good things. I admired the writing style and perspective very much. Nan O'Dea is an intriguing character in her own right, and given all the backstory that was added, she's a compelling character and 'rival' to Agatha, i.e. a fine match of villains and suspects that we'd see in one of Christie's books. The author, de Gramont, makes her readers empathize with Nan's situation despite her intentional affair with a married man. On its own, the story is interesting... why is a husband cheating, where did he meet Nan, how were Nan and Agatha friends, et al.? When I forgot that this was in part focused on Agatha's disappearance, I relaxed into the story and enjoyed it a lot.

On the flip side, there were a few areas that were inordinately vague and confusing. The story generally focuses on Nan, but it seems to switch perspective and POV in the same paragraphs where I had to keep rereading to determine if the author was telling the section from Agatha's or Nan's perspective. What makes it even harder is that Agatha uses the last name O'Dea when she's hiding out, as does Nan for part of it, and the distinguishing factor is Miss or Mrs. O'Dea. Then... one character is involved with both of them, and I couldn't tell if he was playing games or didn't quite know the full story of each woman's secret. It felt as if there were a great plot but the techniques needed tightening up to help the reader stay in the right voice. Some vagueness is good for suspense but it was so much that I honestly couldn't keep it straight and sometimes just skipped the page until I got pulled back into the reality.

Overall, I give it 3.5 stars for the fresh POV, the intriguing backstory, and the ingenuity in mapping reality to several stories from Agatha's actual books. I would read more by the author too.

Well, I had hoped to like this book more; however, that wasn't the case. I am a fan of Ms. Christie's mysteries and thought a look at her personal life and those mysterious missing days would be more engaging. Instead, the main character, Nan O'Dea, starts off being unlikeable and despite learning her history and motivations, my feelings for her never changed. Instead, I felt sorry for those around her, including Ms. Christie's cheating scoundrel of a husband. The story itself was smart and inventive. However, it did feel a bit contrived and implausible. I struggled thinking all the pieces could actually fall together so nicely for this to have happened. And perhaps if it didn't have to work in the confines of what we actually do know about Ms. Christie's life, maybe it would have worked better for me? I wonder what she would have thought of this interpretation of her days missing, what lead up to them, what was uncovered during them, and what followed.

"She doesn't remember."

Fact: On 12/3/1926 Agatha Christie drove away after her husband Archie told her he was was leaving her for another woman. The next day her car was found abandoned with her suitcase still in it. Eleven days later she was found in a hotel under the name Tessa Neele (the last name of her husband's mistress). Until her death in 1976, 50 years from that disappearance, she claimed she had no memory of those 11 days.

A real life mystery from the queen of mysteries! The Christie Affair by cleverly imaginative author Nina de Gramont imagines what happened before, during, and after those missing days from the viewpoint of Archie Christie's mistress Nan.

Nan's story in this historical fiction of the first quarter of the 20th century is a novel by itself. It includes an intense love affair, a pregnancy out of wedlock, being locked away in an nunnery with unwanted nightly visits from a horrid priest and a stolen baby.

Told in alternating chapters from Nan's past and Agatha's disappearance, which made international news, we get a twisty double murder mystery, a few salacious love affairs and a reveal that I never saw coming and admit the author got me.

Listening to the audiobook I thoroughly enjoyed narrator Lucy Scott and her many accents. I loved that I could almost see the wink when revealing Nan's secrets.

This story is a bit out there but a fun one to entertain. Personally, I think Agatha needed to get away, breathe, cry, get drunk and yell. Then come back as the refined lady she was and make a new life for her and her daughter. She did remarry, travel the world and become the most successful author in the world selling more books than anyone except Shakespeare and The Bible.

I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via #netgalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

A fictional story of the 11 days that Agatha Christie disappeared after learning that her husband Archie was in love with another woman and wanted a divorce. Agatha knew that the other woman Nan didn’t really love him, so why was she really so set on winning him? Full of intrigue, speculation, and even murder, The Christie Affair offers a complex story of which we can only speculate how much might be true.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this creative family drama. Such a bold cast of characters that pull the reader right into the story. Nice POVs and storyline delivery.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

My expectations were high for this book because an author I love gave it high praise months ago. For me, it had a lot of potential but really dragged in the middle.

The titled "affair" is between Agatha Christie's husband, Archie, and a younger woman Nan O'Dea. When Archie, a typical one-dimensional cad, tells Agatha about the affair and tries to leave her, she disappears. Her car is found on the side of the road and Agatha is missing for 11 days. It seems the whole of England is looking for her. Ultimately, Nan's motivations and backstory are interesting, but it takes so long to get there that you may not even care when you get to that part of the book. It was interesting, but there was so much in-between that was not compelling, that I had a hard time getting there. This is based on Christie's true 11-day disappearance, but is fictionalized and told from Nan's point of view.

“The Christie Affair” is stunningly beautiful story filled with mystery and secrets. It pulls you in as soon as you open the pages, and will stay with you long after you’ve finished.

The mystery surrounding Agatha Christie’s eleven day disappearance is one that remains to this day. The story has been told before, but never has anyone written anything like this about what happened while she was gone. Why would Agatha, who was such a devoted and loving wife leave her dear Archie?

And who is the other woman who stole her husband away? And why?

Told from the perspective of the other woman, Nan O’Dea, the mystery is explained in rich detail. One will despise Nan when they first meet her, but will grow to understand her in time. There was so much heartbreak for Agatha, but she wasn’t alone in her sorrow. There is hope for a happy ending, that each woman will receive the love they deserve.

This was an unexpectedly moving story and I absolutely loved every single minute of it. This is one of those books where you wish you could experience the beauty of reading it for the first time over and over again. Such a beautiful plot with splendidly written characters!

I would like to thank Nina de Gramont, St. Martin’s Press, and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. This review will be published to Netgalley, Barnes & Nobel, and Books-A-Million.

Publication date: 02/01/2022

This was one of my most anticipated reads this year, but the first half left me confused and disappointed. Although based loosely on the disappearance of Agatha Christie, it’s told from the perspective of the fictional mistress ( vs the real mistress 🤷‍♀️) of Mr Archibald Christie. Why the author choose a fictional character for the mistress ? You sort of get to that in the second half of the book when you are faced with an Agatha Christie type mystery but…

Generally speaking the writing is quite good, as is character development, but overall it left me wanting more.

In December 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days after her husband told her he was leaving her for his mistress. Agatha's car was found abandoned, but no sign of the famous author anywhere. What happened and why? The Christie Affair details Nina de Gramont's fictionalized account of what happened during those mysterious 11 days. The story Gramont writes is fascinating and even, at times, tragic and scandalous. The delivery was a bit dry for me, but it is totally in keeping with novels written during the turn of the century. And, I did not particularly care for the narrator throughout the story – the mistress of Agatha's husband - and would have much rather the narrator been a third party, like Finbarr – the lost love of the mistress, someone who has a stake in the story but is every bit sympathetic. But even with all the things I wish were a bit different, the intriguing story still stands out as a bright contrast to those things. The Christie Affair involves a mystery with a shocking conclusion plus bits and pieces of little-talked-about realities in Ireland around the turn of the century, such as the Magdalene Laundries/Convents. If you are looking for a scandalous answer to the question of where Agatha Christie was during those eleven lost days, look no further than The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont.