The story is told as Historical fiction as a woman leaves for eleven days after being told by her husband that he wants a divorce. Full of intrigue and mystery that will want you to finish this book once you start.

This book was ultimately a DNF for me. I wanted so badly to like it and I was really looking forward to reading it but it just didn't do it for me. I love historical fiction, and familiar enough with Agatha Christie's story and this book seemed promising. I think the idea to write the book from the other woman's perspective is really interesting . In fact I cared about Nina's story more than about Agatha's disappearance. I probably would've just read a novel about Nina's life. Which is fine except that it kind of defeats the purpose of the book. I'm the end I just really didn't feel drawn to any of the characters and didn't really care about the mystery at the centre of the book.

Agatha Christie is facing the break down of her marriage as a new and younger woman enters her and her husband, Archie's, lives. The novel accounts for the real-life disappearance of Christie during a short period of time in the late 1920s.

I thought the premise of this book was so intriguing and de Gramont does a wonderful job describing the thoughts and feelings of the various characters in this novel. I was not expecting that back story of Nan and the connections to the Christie's - it had me researching information from this time period to learn more about Christie's actual disappearance. The author was able to weave so many different stories together quite well and I was so interested to know how everything connected in the end.

An addictive read I couldn't stop reading. The author breathes new life into this very mysterious event in Agatha Christie's life. The characters leap from the page. The emotional narration guts the reader, but in a good. I can't recommend this book enough!

My Rating: 5++ stars

Since I love all things Agatha Christie, it should come as no surprise that I loved this book so much. THE CHRISTIE AFFAIR is a must-read. Nina de Gramont wove together a story that was compelling and positively addictive. From beginning to end, I couldn't get enough.

Don't misunderstand, this is a strong 3 and not a tepid one, but I really needed more Agatha and less Nan. Also...I didn't really need to be sympathetic to this somewhat ancillary character. I didn't care for most of her decisions and I wasn't there for her story anyway, so.

I have been fascinated by Agatha Christie and her eleven days of disappearance since I heard about The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont. Though I ended up reading my favorite author, Marie Benedict’s rendition of the events in The Mystery of Mrs. Christie first (see review here), I expected Gramont’s book to add more dimension and its own unique take on the events that we don’t truly know transpired.

When I first started reading The Christie Affair, I compared it a lot to what I knew from The Mystery of Mrs. Christie. However, since both are speculative fiction about the famous mystery writer, Agatha Christie, there were a number of creative liberties taken by the authors and I had to work on disassociating what I thought I knew to what was happening in the book. While Agatha and Archie remain the same, I noticed that the name of their child is different (or maybe it is just what they call her) and in this version, Archie’s mistress, Nan, has a lot of the centre stage.

While Agatha is definitely a hook for readers to pick up the novel, The Christie Affair is an educational read about society, the view on pregnancy of unmarried Cathotic women, the effects of the war and much more. Nan is originally from Ireland and as I got to know her past life, it was impossible not to feel for her.

Falling in love with a soldier named Finbarr and then being separated from him on his return from the war, Nan is sent to the Magdalene Laundries when she finds out she is pregnant with his child. Having seen her sister be devastated by similar circumstances, Nan is bent on making a better life for herself and has the support of her mother to do so. However, the Magdalene Laundries are a horror in themselves with the priest sexually assualting pregnant girls and the residents working all day. They never get to keep their children and most importantly, they have to do good to be given the ‘privilege’ of tending to the babies born there. These chapters were a heartbreaking read and set the stage for a revenge/murder plot that I had not anticipated. The Laundries are also where Nan’s daughter is adopted and where begins Nan’s journey to reconnect with her.

Nan is driven to find her daughter and when she realizes who she is, she creeps into the lives of the Christies. There are a number of moral dilemmas that come up but to Nan, having lost Finbarr, her child is the only person that matters. How the plot unfolds and reveals these truths in conjugation with Agatha’s disappearance is brilliant writing and my skepticism about reading the mistress’ perspective went right out of the window. I understood Nan’s motivations and as expected from any mystery whether her truths are actually truths depends on perspective.

Moving on from Nan back to Agatha for a bit: I loved this Agatha. I found her to be a more vocal and vibrant version than The Mystery of Mrs Christie. She has learned some things about her marriage and her child that she has to reconcile with what she knows to be true while keeping in mind the people that she is interacting with – Archie and Nan have their own beliefs and interpretations and I felt that Agatha’s decisions at the end of the day balanced what she wanted and what was best for everyone.

It is clear that Archie has mistreated her and she needs to get out of an unhappy marriage. I liked that she had an instant spark with Chilton, the detective investigating her disappearance, and how the two of them had a bit of a cat and mouse chase going on. But as smart individuals with specialization in mysteries (solving vs writing), they made a great pair. The author also did a wonderful job in building each of the side characters, be it Chilton, Finbarr or the women and clergy at the institution.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing me a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. This review is posted on my website, Armed with A Book.

When the world’s most famous mystery disappears for eleven days it’s fair to say there is many curiosities about her disappearance. Agatha Christie’s husband has been cheating with Nan. Nan has a history that is totally unexpected.
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This story gives a lot of backstory about Christie’s personal relationships and the mystery surrounding her life.
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Thank you #StMartinsPress and #NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the gifted copy of The Christie Affair! All opinions in this review are my own.

Unfortunately, I DNFed this one at page 168. The mystery surrounding the days that Agatha Christie went missing is an alluring premise. Coupled with the affair her husband was having, I was instantly drawn to this book. It took me a little while to get used to the fact that the mistress was narrating it but I eventually had to stop because it became more about her and her past rather than Agatha. There was way too much backstory for her and I got to one scene in particular that proved to myself I was done with the book.

As an Agatha Christie fan I had to read this book immediately. The insight into Christie, her life, and her tangled emotions were phenomenal in creating an unputdownable book. It was fun to be a part of a potential explanation for Christie's disappearance for two weeks. While the book obviously took some historical liberties with characters and events, it was entertaining and amusing to read.

The first third of this book barely piqued my interest, but there was just enough of a thread here and there for me to pick up and continue. The second third of this book had me contemplating and hooked - how does it all weave rogethwr and what on earth is the importance of the backstory. The last third wrapped it all up very neatly and hit me with a big "oh" moment. In the parts focused on AC, I didn't feel like I was reading about Agatha as a real historical person - the book as it is written felt like it could have been written about any woman of a certain age and certain class in a certain time period. That's not a critique at all - just an aside on how the book transported me from real world to one with complicated relationships, mysteries, and twists.

I received an advanced copy from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

I do love historical fiction novels and when I read about this I was super intrigued, as I had no idea about Agatha Christie disappearing for 11 days! And to this day, no one really knows the truth and that truly is, terribly exciting. I was quite a bit frustrated for almost the whole first half of this book because it was focusing on Nan more than Agatha and I was THINKING to drop it, however, I pushed through. The novel was interesting and I did like the back and forth with getting mostly Nan's history, but some of Agatha's as well. The story had a MASSIVE twist in the end that linked with Nan's past that seemed totally out of nowhere and was very much the author's nod to Agatha Christie novels. In the end, the novel was worth the read and was enjoyable.

Nina de Gramont definitely does not need my help spreading the word about her novel, The Christie Affair, but I can’t help joining the chorus of acclaim. The novel imagines what happened to Agatha Christie during an 11-day period where she went missing in December 1926. De Gramont has called the novel “almost 100% fiction” but it reads like a biographical true crime book.
In our age of ubiquitous Ring cameras and tag-your-location social media, the idea that an author as famous as Christie could disappear for 11 minutes, much less 11 days, seems unimaginable. But the thoughtful historical details and memorable characters give the book an authentic flavor along with the whodunnit appeal of a British mystery. Since those are my favorite genres, the book grabbed me right away. Highly recommend, especially for anyone who loves Paula McClain, Ann Cleeves or, of course, Dame Agatha.

An interesting read for fans of mystery or Agatha Christie. This historical novel centers on the short disappearance of Agatha, but it is more the story of her husband’s mistress Nan O’Dea. While there were moments I longed to revisit Agatha, the reader gets pulled into the life of Nan and enjoys her back story. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC. This is my honest review.

De Gramont’s novel is based on the real-life story of Agatha Christie’s 11-day disappearance in 1926. She is the mystery novelist who left home after her husband told her he planned to seek a divorce and take on his mistress. Agatha left in the night, taking her car which she later abandoned along with her suitcase and secretly went to a Yorkshire hotel presumably so she wouldn’t be found too quickly! A story of murder, love and deceit and one you will find hard to put down. I recommend reading it, after all Agatha is so well known and her books so widely read, how could you not enjoy the twists! I give it 4.5

Nan O’Dea had one mission in life, separate Agatha Christie from her husband, Archie. She did it well and knew it was only a matter of time before she became the next Mrs. Christie. However, before that marriage could happen, Nan needed to settle a few things from her past. So, while Archie was preoccupied with his missing wife, Nan decided to take a holiday to regroup and say goodbye to a painful past. What Nan did not expect was for her past and present to meet and for it to be one of the most glorious weeks of her life. But how will it all end? Will Archie go back to his wife? Would Nan’s past constantly haunt her and cause her further grief?

Told from the point-of-view of Archie Christie’s mistress, Nan, speaking to the reader, a fabulous story (or three) are unraveled slowly. Readers will be quite caught off guard by some of the events, thinking that they are reading a love story that happens to involve a famous author, when actually they are learning something deeper about Ireland’s history. Readers will also enjoy seeing some other authors that were involved in the real-life search for Mrs. Christie. To this day, no one knows what happened during the time she was missing, but this perspective provides an almost hopefully theory.

Let’s start with this clarification: this book is completely fictionalized. It was so well-told that I did research after the fact to verify what was real and what was not. This is not the first Nina de Gramont book that I have read. My reading group read Last September years ago. I loved it and I loved this story. This author writes books filled with twists and turns. I enjoyed the liberties the author took to highlight real, horrific events that were occurring in the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland. I love a book that inspires me to do research. This is a definite must-read for fans of historical fiction.

I enjoyed this book, but I was hoping for more story focused on Agatha Christie and not as much by her husband's mistress.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. I did not know anything about this whole disappearace but wow this was so good. Just when I thought I knew what was going to happen I was thrown for a loop on the next page. So good

A historical fiction about the 11 days in which Agatha Christie went missing. This was a really intriguing retelling of this historical incident. The story by the mistress of Agatha Christie's husband in dual timelines. It fluctuates between the past and the present and when those timelines meet up it is truly spectacular. Know that this is fiction and liberties were taken...and I loved them. I really enjoyed this story and found absolutely engrossing.

The Christie Affair is a fictional story based on the disappearance of the well-known mystery author, Agatha Christie. Seeing as she has so much experience writing mysteries, it came as no surprise that her disappearance would lead to so many questions and became a mystery to everyone, including her own husband.

The story is told from Agatha's husband's mistress, Nan O'Dea and the narrative goes back and forth in the book between her childhood and upbringing, to what led her to engage in an affair with this married man. The author did a really great job at painting a picture of Nan's life and motives, causing a lot of sympathy from the reader towards her. The character development among all of the characters was done incredibly well and by the end of the book, I feel like I knew each of them personally.

The ending wasn't what I had expected but the author ended the book in a way where all my questions had been answered and I was satisfied with the outcome. I enjoyed the descriptive imagery and the author's personal style of writing and I look forward to reading more of her books in the future.

I was given a copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.