This is the last book I want to read about the 10 days Agatha Christie was missing. Of all of them, this is perhaps the least plausible. I realise a husband having an affair at the time would have been a scandal but it's a weak premise to build a blackmail/murder plot from. Also, given we know some of what happened in the lead-up to her disappearance, as well as what happened after, there's not really any wriggle room for fictional romps. As for the blackmailer - he's a painfully underwritten character harking back to a silent movie bad guy. Totally unbelievable.

I love Agatha Christie's novels and what could be as good as those? A novel about Agatha Christie herself! I thoroughly enjoyed the writing and how well researched the novel is.

After reading this book, I decided to do an article on modern day authors writing about golden age authors/characters:

Fans of the Golden Age queens of crime: Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L Sayers, Margery Allingham and Josephine Tey may like to know that their characters and indeed lives carry on in a number of recent books.

Agatha Christie’s infamous 11 day disappearance in 1926 when she absconded to Harrogate has never been officially explained and she does not refer to it in her autobiography. Was it illness after the death of her mother or revenge on her philandering husband that prompted her flight? Or was it due to aliens as postulated by the Doctor Who episode, The Unicorn and the Wasp (available on iPlayer)? The Channel 5 film, Agatha & The Truth of Murder, now available on Netflix, also looks at this event. In books, rather than television, we have Andrew Wilson’s crime series featuring Agatha as the main character which begins with A TALENT FOR MURDER and has another and more sinister take on her disappearance.

If you can’t get enough of Christie’s most famous detective, Hercule Poirot, then you’ll be pleased to know that Sophie Hannah has brought him back to life in a series of books beginning with THE MONOGRAM MURDERS.

Ngaio Marsh’s debonair sleuth Roderick Alleyn returns for one last case in THE MONEY IN THE MORGUE a novel begun and abandoned by Marsh, but now completed by Stella Duffy.

Jill Paton Walsh took up the Lord Peter Wimsey mantle back in 1998 when she was invited to complete Dorothy L Sayers’s THRONES, DOMINATIONS. She has written another Wimsey book based on clues left by Sayers, plus two more from her own ideas.

Margery Allingham is probably best known for her Albert Campion series, televised in 1989/90 starring Peter Davison. Her husband, Pip Youngman Carter, continued the Campion series with two book and an unfinished one which has recently been completed by Mike Ripley as MR CAMPION’S FAREWELL. Ripley has gone on to write six more original Campion novels.

And finally Josephine Tey stars in a series of crime novels by Nicola Upson. As Gordon Daviot, Tey (real name Elizabeth MacKintosh), wrote plays including the hit ‘Richard of Bordeaux’ which starred John Gielgud. And it is this play which forms the backdrop to the first book in Upson’s series, AN EXPERT IN MURDER. In a later book in the series, FEAR IN THE SUNLIGHT, Tey is mixing with the Hitchcocks at Portmeirion.

In 1926 Agatha Christie went missing for a few days, a massive police hunt followed to find the celebrated authoress, and Agatha was eventually discovered at a hotel in Harrogate. She said she had lost her memory & refused to discuss the incident.

Around these facts Andrew Wilson has woven a preposterous story of blackmail & murder. Entertaining, with nice period detail, if a little slow in places.

Thank you Net Galley for this free copy in return for an honest review.

Review appears in Librarything & Good Reads.

The disappearance of Agatha Christie and her subsequent discovery at an hotel in Harrogate has mystified people as much as the convoluted plots of her books. I've seen the movie about it which if I recall doesn't actually give a plausible reason for the events.
In this fictionalised version we discover what could have happened based on the facts of the case. I enjoyed reading the book up to a point but felt that it was overlong and a bit dry in places. We will never know what happened to the author all that time ago but this book takes real events and mixes them with fiction to provide one view of things.

An excellent concept and a good story about Agatha Christie's real life based on a true situation that could come straight from one of her own novels.

Written by a true Agatha Christie fan, this book places the author firmly into a mystery plot just when she hits a low personal spot. Christie has never spoken about the days she spent "disappeared" and this is an interesting suggestion by Wilson. Supported by a clearly deep biographer's interest, this reads as a good period piece. It can make the reader forget it's fiction. Well done.

I am in two minds about this book. On one hand, it's an interesting and obviously well researched portrayal of the events of Agatha Christie's disappearance in 1926, but on the other hand there's nothing new there and there's no actual mystery or suspense. I am not even sure if it should be classed as a fiction book.

I enjoyed the biographical elements of this murder mystery perhaps more than the whodunit side of things. It had a period charm to it that was totally in keeping and although it was very much classic crime, it had some very brutal scenes as well. Overall I enjoyed it although I found the scenes narrated by Kenward a bit tedious. I very much liked the idea of filling in the gaps of what happened to our greatest murder mystery writer when she disappeared for a few days in real life.

What was the reason behind Agatha Christie's 10-day disappearance?

Another take of famous, not yet explained, real mystery of Agatha Christie's life. Till today we don't know what was the reason for her being MIA for 10 days (during which the UK went quite curious and even wild with lookout for her).
Author Andrew Wilson toys with the idea that the queen of murder went to act on murder...herself.

First, pros: the setting of the times and mystery is quite eloquent and well-researched. Mr Wilson is obviously Christie's reader and there is myriad of real life memories and/or plot issues, characters and ideas from her books mentioned. I also like the idea about why her mind got so curious and reactive about the murder and psychology intertwined with violent death.

But - the plot and motifs behind the behaviour of heroine (and, to the smaller amount, the behaviour of other characters) are weak and even rather silly. I would not for a minute to believe that any rational person would behave like Agatha Christie in the novel did. I struggled with lame motifs, unrealistic villain and naive characters. Yes, the first few books by Agatha Christie are rather naive, but she herself was 36-year-old mother and wife at the time mentioned, not a child believing just the most unbelievable tale without literally any proof.
And as her disappearance is the issue in question, and as the motif is what makes or breaks the deal for me - I am giving just 3 stars. And this just just because I love the Christie's world. If the book was about any other person, famous or not, I would go for 2 stars.

A huge part of the appeal of this story is that it's based around an actual mystery from Agatha Christie's own life. That I'd heard nothing about this mystery before is fascinating! But there it is on her Wikipedia page: "On 3 December 1926... around 9:45 pm, Christie disappeared from her home, leaving behind a letter for her secretary saying that she was going to Yorkshire. Her car, a Morris Cowley, was later found at Newlands Corner, perched above a chalk quarry, with an expired driving licence and clothes. Her disappearance caused an outcry from the public." So begins this story, which proposes that the combination of her husband's affair and the attention of unstable literary fan caused her unexplained disappearance for 10 days nearly a century ago. The story is a little fanciful at times but it does make a convincing case that something very serious happened; so much so that she made no reference to the event in her autobiography, published in 1977, despite it having been front page news for over a week some 50 years prior. If you enjoy a bit of mystery mixed with history, then this book is definitely for you.

I have been an Agatha Christie fan for as long as I can remember, I have all her books, from Poirot to Miss Marple, and is always a pleasure to re-read them.

Andrew really knows agatha Christie as his writing reminds me of her in many ways.

This is such a great book and is really worth a read… so mysterious that now you will want more books like this one from Andrew Wilson.

I struggled to get involved in this story. I have read all of Agatha Christies books and loved them . I didn't like the characterisation of her in this fact/fiction story and felt it was rather demeaning and the story very slow and pedantic.

I have just finished reading A Talent for Murder. Andrew Wilson has caught the right atmosphere for this book. It caught my imagination from the very beginning. It covers the time Agatha Christie went missing. Would she do what was asked of her, sinister though it was. I loved the twist in the tale. a must read for any Agatha Christie fan and anyone else just wanting a good intriguing read.

A Talent For Murder is the latest imagining of what happened to Agatha Christie when she vanished for 11 days in 1926. In this she falls under the blackmailing influence of an insidious doctor. He doesn't want money. He wants Agatha to use her considerable knowledge of murder in a very real and hands on fashion...

I'll let you into a little secret. I read a lot but I have a no reading after 9pm rule. Because I won't sleep it I don't. I know you know what I mean. It's the age old bibliophile issue....the just one more chapter problem....the it's only half 10 I can read a bit more oh hell how did it become 1am fail. Well I finished reading this at half one this morning. That's how much I enjoyed it. Andrew Wilson has brought to life the woman who probably shaped crime fiction into what it is today. Around her he has woven a complex and enthralling story that I think the great lady herself would have approved of.

I received this from Netgalley for an honest review.

I will not be submitting a review, please see notes to publisher, thank you.

i was looking forward to reading this but a bad download with disjointed sentences meant it was unreadable. If another opportunity arises I will definitely give it another go .

I love Agatha Christie, I have done since I was child! She was the queen of her art and she remains so 40 years after her death. Her disappearance in Dec 1926 has always intrigued me, this book brings it to glorious life! He sells Agatha as person really well and twists and turns of why she disappeared is worthy of one of her books! All fans should read and strangers should find this a great intro to her world famous canon of books! It's an entertaining and well written book which I would read again. I'm sure Agatha would approve even though she hated the subject of her missing 10 days being mentioned....

This is an unconvincing story. The events related are so unlikely that it is impossible to be convinced by them. It is certainly not worthy of being associated with Agatha Christie.