Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to listen to an advance copy of The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont. Macmillan Audio books never disappoint!

I have always loved Agatha Christie! Back in high school I read “And Then There Were None” and the story is still one of my all time favorites! Therefore, when hearing about Agatha Christie’s mysterious disappearance for eleven days, I have always been intrigued! What happened during her time away? And why doesn’t anyone know what was going on during that time?

The Christie Affair is a historical fiction story based on Mrs. Christie’s disappearance and the investigation to find her. The story is told from Nan O’Dea’s perspective. Nan is Archie Christie, Agatha’s husband’s mistress.

Nan tells the story of her troubled life in Ireland and the reader begins to know what her motivations are though her backstory. Nan’s perspective makes for an interesting plot line of this book.

There are several timelines in the story but I did not find them to be difficult to understand. Most importantly, the audiobook narrator, Lucy Scott, does a phenomenal job!

This story involves scandals, betrayal, secrets, and murder.

5 🌟

If you are a fan or historical fiction, mystery, and unreliable narrators than this is the book for you! It was engrossing with twists and turns and great storytelling!

Thanks to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for a #gifted electronic copy and #MacMillanAudio for the audiobook of #TheChristieAffair in exchange for an honest review.

The Christie Affair tells a fictional account of the 11-day disappearance of Agatha Christie. As a thriller/mystery reader, I'm sorry to say I'm quite unfamiliar with her famous disappearance. So with the promise of “star-crossed lovers, heartbreak, revenge, and murder” wrapped around Agatha Christie's disappearance, I jumped at the chance to request this.

Multiple storylines thread this novel - Agatha, Archie Christie, Nan (Archie’s mistress), and the inspector. But mainly, the story focuses on Nan’s POV. She’s an interesting character, one who believes in lucid dreams or lucid living. Nan retells her history, which is sad and heartbreaking. But for 80% of the novel, I could not figure out what her history had to do with Agatha Christie’s disappearance. Instead of the storyline being intriguing, I found it meandering and confusing. I love a good mystery, and this one did have a good twist but took too long to arrive.

I did enjoy Lucy Scott’s narration of #TheChristieAffair and I look forward to her future narrations. But as for the story itself, if you’re looking for the retelling of Agatha’s disappearance, I think you’ll be disappointed. The story is really about Nan while using Agatha’s disappearance as a side story.

The Christie Affair definitely is a wild ride! Probably wilder than Agatha Christie’s actual romp around in London, 1925. Miss Nan O’Dea became Archie Christie’s mistress and he plans to marry Nan. We see not just Agatha dealing with lost love but also Nan’s teenage/ya love. Nan shows the many ways in which grief changes us. I loved the imagining of Agatha’s adventure through the English countryside. This is a fun look at unlikely alliances (Nan’s lover and Agatha), and how Agatha was a woman, heroin, lover, mother, writer, and wife. The mystery within the mystery was such fun traditional Agatha’s version of vigilante justice. Such a fun, wild ride even if I did hate Nan.

I adored this mystery set during the 11 days of Agatha Christie’s disappearance. It’s told from the perspective of Christie’s husband’s mistress and Christie herself. #TheChristieAffair is utterly absorbing. #partner @stmartinspress @ninadegramont

There are layers of mystery throughout this book, with a side of love story. I never felt I would be able to sympathize with a mistress but I was cheering for her by the end.

If you love a good mystery, this is a must-read. It's out next month!

I never knew about the disappearance of Agatha Christie for 11 days in 1926, so when I heard about this book - telling one possible version of what *might* have happened while she was gone - I knew I had to read it...and investigate on what little information is out there about her actual disappearance.

Narrated by the mistress of Agatha Christie's husband, Nan O'Dea, I became more invested and absorbed in her story line and felt like the book was more about her than Agatha Christie. Written from her point of view, but with the benefit of hindsight and plenty of extra information from the other characters, Nan swept me into her world, her mind and her heart and kept me there through the whole book. I found myself caring, desperately, about what was going to happen to her, and because of her.

Since it's a book about Christie, of course there's plenty of mystery too, besides Agatha's disappearance. But what I loved most was how all the separate threads woven loosely together at the start, were pulled tight as the story progressed, until you realized how everything & everyone was connected.

Rating 4 stars because it was a little more confusing to keep up with the timelines & stories through the audio version (there were no page breaks/markers to notate). I also wished there were some author's note at the end to share the factual account of what happened as I'm curious now how much of the book was taken from facts, and how much was fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for an advanced audio version of this book. The Christie Affair touts itself as a clever reimagining of the 11 days Agatha Christie went missing in 1926, and the manhunt to find her. I love Agatha Christie and I am intrigued by her disappearance, so I was excited to read more about the time and hopefully gain new insight to what happened. What makes this a difficult review for me is that I was expecting one thing but I got another.
Let me point out some of the good things about this book. The writing was lovely and I definitely will be looking forward to reading more from Nina de Gramont in the future. The research appeared to be thorough and added great depth to the story. The narrator was also wonderful in the audio version, which kept me fully engaged throughout the story.
The story in and of itself was good, especially if you like Ireland. It was slow burning with mystery elements sprinkled throughout. It was told through the voice of Nan O'Dea, the mistress to Agatha Christie's husband. The majority of the book is spent on O'Dea through flashbacks as a young woman in Ireland, and what ultimately brought her into the Christies lives, rather than what happened to Agatha Christie during her 11 days of being missing. I understand that the author had to tell the backstory to move into the motives of Ms. O'Dea, but I was really hoping for more of the story of Agatha Christie's disappearance. Maybe it is a case of "it's not you, it's me", in that I expected something else. That being said I still enjoyed the audio version and was glad to have had the chance to listen to it and provide an honest review. I do think this author has tremendous talent, and, as I mentioned earlier, I will be looking forward to books from her in the future. This was a 3.5 star (rounded up) for me. I would recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction and Ireland.

3.5 stars
I liked part of this book. I listened to the audio version.
Throughout the first ~50% I wondered about the connection between wife and mistress. It was intriguing enough to motivate me to continue listening. The mistress's backstory was more interesting than Agatha's, but the story is mainly about the mistress and how her life and circumstances were tied to that of the Christies. Once the connection was revealed, the book became intensely interesting.
I felt that the story had climaxed but the audiobook continued to drone on. In my opinion, less than 50% of this book was worth reading/listening to. I guess this is what's called a "slow burn". Unfortunately for much of the book, I did not feel tension building. However, others who really enjoy a "slow burn" may like the other ~50% more than I did.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

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. Lucy Scott’s narration is brilliant.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this ARC.

Thanks, NetGalley, the author and publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.

A fictional account of the real Agatha Christie disappearance on Friday 3 December 1926 at around 9:30 p.m

I enjoyed this mystery. I liked learning about Agatha Christie and her disappearance, but I thought Nan's story was much more interesting. I enjoyed all the surprises and revelations throughout the story. It has a heartbreaking love story -Finbar and Nan.

I don't think this title fits in our high school library, but if a student is interested in Agatha Christie then I would recommend this title. I recommend it to those who love mysteries . I did a little research and it was indeed the first time planes were used to search for a missing person.

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!

I listened to the audio and loved the narration, although she talked a little fast so I had to listen on a slower speed than I normally would. Thanks to MacMillan Audio for the advanced copy!

“𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒔𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒑𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒔; 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝑴𝒓𝒔. 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆. 𝑾𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏’𝒕 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒆𝒍𝒔𝒆’𝒔.”

I have always been a big Agatha Christie fan, discovering her books when I was in middle school! I was very excited to dive into this fictional imagining of Christie’s 11 day disappearance in 1926.

Listening to this on audiobook was quite a fun experience; Lucy Scott told the story in an engaging way, and had lots of differing voices. Her Irish accent was especially great! I didn’t love her Archie voice… although I didn’t love Archie as a character either! I liked this re-imagining of history, including the real facts and people involved in Christie’s disappearance, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy Sayers. There’s a lot of fiction in this “historical fiction,” but what de Gramont comes up with is enthralling; the backstory of Nan O’Day (based on Nancy Neele, Archie’s mistress) is super gripping and well developed. In fact, it is so well developed that Agatha seemed more like a secondary character; I was hoping for a bit more surrounding her disappearance. The four main characters of Nan, Agatha, Finbarr and Inspector Chilton were equally enthralling, and I loved their connections and relationships to each other. There were a couple of good twists; the murder mystery plot played out much like one of Christie’s novels, especially the “locked room” location of a hotel, a set of suspects/guests, a man dying in the middle of having dinner, and red herrings.

Overall, I enjoyed The Christie Affair, even if I wanted a bit more from the disappearance side of the story. It is a layered and immersive tale that explores the bonds of womanhood, female identify, mystery, love, and justice. It has already been picked up to be adapted as a limited series by Miramax. I’ll definitely be checking it out to see the story Nina de Gramont’s word played out on screen. Thank you to MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the Advanced Listen!

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. This was also great on audio narrated by Lucy Scott.

I finished this audiobook just in time for publication date . FEBRUARY 1 2022!
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio.
Here is a great story for fans of Agatha Christie of which I count myself one.
The story is told by the mistress of Archie Christie ( Nan O'Dea). She is relating what happened during Agatha Christie's famed disappearance in the 1920s. The story goes back to Nan's life before the Christies and also always reminds the reader of how the "future" actually turned out. It is a great example of historical fiction taking off on some truths and embellishing them delightfully.
The story was a slow start as all the characters seemed unlikeable. As the listener learns more, (understands the characters better) it does become much more enjoyable. Even Agatha Christie had few villains as nefarious as Father Joseph and Sister Mary Clare. The story evolves to be that of Nan O'Dea with Agatha thrown in for extra interest.
The plot was very well constructed. The writing was first rate.
I did enjoy the narration of this version and felt it added a good deal to the story

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.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Lucy Scott, who does a fine job.

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

This was beautifully enticing. The narrator did a wonderful job conveying the different character voices and making you want to hear more. The story itself was as much Nan’s as it was Agatha’s. That in of itself made the story even more interesting. Overall it was addicting and intriguing.

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★.

As I stated above, I listened to the audio version of this book. It was narrated by Lucy Scott who did a fine job. I liked some of her character voices more than others, but overall it was enjoyable and easy to listen to.

3.5★
#NetGalley #TheChristieAffair #NinaDeGramont

This was a very interesting story with good pacing and great character development. I really enjoyed this different take on what happened during the 11 days that Agatha was missing.


It is 1926 and Agatha Christie has been told by her husband Archie that he is leaving her for his mistress, Nan. Agatha packs a bag and leaves. Her car is found with her bag still in it but no sign of Agatha. This book takes you thru those 11 days but also the backstory of Nan who is the narrator of the majority of the book.

I highly recommend this book. I received an early audio copy of this book.

The Christie Affair was an absolutely delicious read and a book I have been looking forward to diving into! The true details surrounding the mysterious disappearance of beloved author Agatha Christie will forever remain unknown, but this book's story is what I truly wish would have happened back in 1926!

The book is told from Nan O'Dea's (Archie's mistress) point of view which turned me off at first, but learning about her backstory and motivations ended up added so many more layers of intrigue to the story!

Nina de Gramont's character development was deep and very necessary given the narrator and the need to gain the reader's trust and compassion. I loved that the story focused on the main players and did not try to introduce so many peripheral characters that the story became cloudy. When reading a timehop book, this can tend to happen, but Nina's writing was very clean and easy to follow even when taking breaks between chapters.

I have always been interested in the Agatha Christe story and this book would have done her proud. I adored my time spent reading this story and while I was previously unfamiliar with Nina de Gramont's work, I will certainly seek her out in the future! Very well written, extremely clever narrative, and a great way to add flare to the mystery of those missing days in 1926. I highly recommend this book to any Agatha Christie fan!

#NetGalley #TheChristieAffair #NinaDeGramont

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