The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont
Nina de Gramont’s The Christie Affair is a beguiling novel of star-crossed lovers, heartbreak, revenge, and murder—and a brilliant re-imagination of one of the most talked-about unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century.
Every story has its secrets.
Every mystery has its motives.“A long time ago, in another country, I nearly killed a woman. It’s a particular feeling, the urge to murder. It takes over your body so completely, it’s like a divine force, grabbing hold of your will, your limbs, your psyche. There’s a joy to it. In retrospect, it’s frightening, but I daresay in the moment it feels sweet. The way justice feels sweet.”
The greatest mystery wasn’t Agatha Christie’s disappearance in those eleven infamous days, it’s what she discovered.
London, 1925: In a world of townhomes and tennis matches, socialites and shooting parties, Miss Nan O’Dea became Archie Christie’s mistress, luring him away from his devoted and well-known wife, Agatha Christie.
The question is, why? Why destroy another woman’s marriage, why hatch a plot years in the making, and why murder? How was Nan O’Dea so intricately tied to those eleven mysterious days that Agatha Christie went missing?
For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #45: Biographical fiction)
The Reason
I needed a book for the 52 Book Club challenge prompt and I’d been curious about Agatha Christie’s mysterious disappearance.
The Quotes
“Sometimes a life is so entirely disrupted, on such a large and ungraspable scale, all one can do is face the ruined day.”
“Obedience seemed the safest plan. I hadn’t learned yet. In this world it’s the obedient girls who are most in danger.”
“I see the kind of determination you only recognize if you’ve felt it yourself. Determination born of desperation transformed into purpose.”
“We both know you can’t tell your own story without exposing someone else’s.”
The Narrator(s)
Lucy Scott. It was pretty good.
My Thoughts
This is a work of fiction so I know it’s not what actually happened with Agatha Christie’s disappearance, but even just taking it as a work of fiction, I find it very hard to suspend my belief because the whole “reveal” is such a reach. I wish I could talk about it more without spoiling it, and to be fair, I’m not sure it’s an actual spoiler because it’s quite obvious throughout the book that it was leading us there. However, it’s not Nan’s reason itself that doesn’t make sense to me, it’s Christie’s reaction to it, and perhaps just the way the story was told. The vibes are great, the story not so much.
I am still very curious about Agatha Christie in general though, and I’m glad I chose this book for the corresponding prompt, because there’s another prompt for a nonfiction book related to the character in this book and I get to read something real about Christie!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?