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.

Loved this book! Such a great story regarding the days of Agatha Christie and her missing. This mystery was page turning and full of so much detail. Such a delight to read!

I've never read any Agatha Christie books, nor had I heard of her disappearance but the premise of the book was intriguing to me so I was excited to read this one. Unfortunately, this wasn't a hit for me. I found myself bored throughout and I just didn't care that much about the characters. Overall, though, the plot was interesting and I enjoyed the twists but this just wasn't the book for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

As an Agatha Christie super fan, I will always read anything I can get my hands on about what may have happened when she disappeared in 1926. So I was excited to read The Christie Affair which is the most fictionalized take I’ve read on the story.

It is both a mystery and sort of a romance and told from the perspective of Christie’s husband’s mistress. The plot twist is one I didn’t see coming, the characters were likable, the pacing was quick, and yet the book didn’t grab me and I didn’t find it memorable. It ended up taking me three months to finish reading as I kept putting it down and picking up other books instead.

On the other hand, I read The Mystery of Mrs. Christie a year ago and still remember the plot and ending of that book. That said, I’d still recommend The Christie Affair to any Agatha Christie aficionado.

This book was a combination of wins and losses for me. The story was incredibly fascinating. I was very invested in Agatha and her story. The problem is that the reader is inundated with Nan.

I'm not sure at what point the book lost me, but I think it was somewhere in the middle. From that point on, I had some trouble staying invested.

I stuck with it and by the end I'm really glad that I did. Because even though this book isn't one that I'd probably ever read again, it was well-written--the author has a sort of confidence in her writing that comes across and pulls the reader along.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book. My review will be live, at the link given, on 9/21/22.

I enjoyed the book, and learned a few things I didn't know. I found the book to be a bit slow-moving, and would have preferred a faster pace.

I went into this without even realizing it was about Agatha Christie (I have never read any of her books--sorry). I also had never heard of this disappearance so I immediately googled her and read everything.

The story is told from Nan's (the mistress) point of view which got confusing at times because there were definitely moments that she was not witness too but yet was telling us how it went down. I spent most of the book thinking she was a terrible person making really bad life choices and too be honest I hate infidelity in books so I almost stopped. However, the thing that kept me going was the mystery of it all.

This was a very confusing story and there are so many characters and divergences that I was struggling to put it together, however the author's writing style is very captivating and I was so curious about what happened that I sort of forgot about my dislike for the narrator. I've never had that happen to me before lol.

Loved this take on historical revenge, strength, and love. As a lover of Agatha Christie I loved that it was based loosely on her writing and the people in her life. I'm hooked on fictionalized historical novels these days and this one was engaging, moved well, and made me wonder what if it were the real story. First book from this author but I will definitely look for more!

This book explores the 11 days when Agatha Christie was missing, but from the perspective of her husband's mistress, Nan O'Dea. In this book, after Archie tells Agatha that she wants a divorce she goes missing. I thought that this book had an original premise to see it through Nan's eyes. There were some twists that I didn't expect and found to be rather interesting possibilities of what might have happened during this time.