In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days. The police suspected her husband. Archie Christie was having an affair and the Christie’s marriage was ending.

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont imagines the events of those 11 days as told by the mistress, Nan O’Dea.

This book also explores Nan’s reasons for the affair-did she plan the affair or was she love struck by Agatha Christie’s husband? This book explores the circumstances of Nan O’Dea’s early life. The reader is told her background, her family life, and her experience with the Catholic Church. This is interspersed with the 11 day timeline of Ms. Christie’s disappearance. At first I didn’t really care about Nan-she was the mistress after all. And Archie is about the most unlikeable husband I’ve read lately.

But hang in there because Ms. de Gramont weaves a mystery almost as well as Ms. Christie herself! I was delighted by the end of this book and kept wondering why I waited so long to read it!

Thank you #netgalley and #stmartinspress for the advanced e-copy of #thechristieaffair .

Sizzle’s………
Why would one of the world’s most famous writers disappear for days? What crime could a person not forgive? What a novel to enjoy. #The Christie Affair by author # Nina de Gramont is unforgettable
Thank you for the advance copy,
#Netgalley and # St. Martins Press

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my review copy!

Diving into a read set approximately 100 years ago, involving an author that I have devoured since I was a child, this historical fiction read was so fun! This reimagining of Christie's true 11 day disappearance has a tremendous backstory and characters strongly developed. Weaving snippets of Christie's mysterious eleven days with fictional reasons for the characters to do what they did, was intriguing! I would definitely recommend!

Book Review || St Martin Press {partner}

Genre: Historical Fiction
Time: 1918-1926
Format: 🎧
Pub Date: 2.1.2022
Star Rating: ☆☆☆.5

“The age of disappearing women. It had been going on forever. Thousands of us vanished, with not a single police officer searching. Not a word from the newspapers. Only our long absences and quiet returns. If we ever returned at all.”

I started reading The Christie Affair back in March, but I wasn’t quite into the story, so I waited a while and downloaded the audiobook from my local library. The audiobook was precisely what I needed to listen to at the time, and I thoroughly enjoyed the narrators.

While I wasn’t a fan of Nan at first (given that she was the other woman), I eventually grew to be fond of her after learning about the trauma that she endured during her past. She had undoubtedly suffered and was continuing to mourn the completely unimaginable loss of her daughter.

I may have gone into this book without reading the synopsis, so it took me a bit to understand that The Christie Affair really wouldn’t include anything from Agatha Christie’s viewpoint. Instead, the entire story was told from Nan’s perspective, even for events she wasn’t present for.

What transpired during this book may or may not have occurred during those eleven days that Agatha Christie disappeared, but it definitely made for an intriguing story.

👩🏽 Told from the perspective of Nan O’Dea
⏳ Time jump from 1918 to 1926
✍🏼 Features Agatha Christie
🔎 A bit of mystery

❌- Rape, Child loss

Very enjoyable, immersive novel that kept this reader turning the pages! Nina de Gramont weaves a fantastic fictional story around the historical facts surrounding Agatha Christie's unexplained disappearance. I enjoyed the cast of characters and loved reading about this well-known event from a different perspective. The mystery played out well and was a nice nod to Agatha Christie's work. Well done!

Thank you to Nina de Gramont, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel and to share my thoughts.

I would recommend this book to fans of Agatha Christie, mystery lovers, and historical fiction fans. I will be purchasing a copy for myself, and copies for gifts for family and friends.

A fictional tale describing what might have happened during the days when the real Agatha Christie went missing.

It's an interesting concept to me that this was written by Christie's mistress. It's a bit mind-bending for me to think about- the author writing about the mistress writing about Christie. Is any part of this story based in reality? I'm not sure and I forgot to check the Author's note before I returned my Library copy (hate that!). But I was somewhat surprised at how wimpy Christie is projected to be. I always imagine her to be very refined, stoic and in control based on her writing and popularity. Maybe that's a misguided viewpoint?

Thinking about a story from the point of view of 'the other woman', one would assume that she is the villain. But once you read this story, you will at least feel empathy towards if not a full understanding of her decisions based on past events. <there may be a few tears here>

I loved the narration in this audiobook however, had I not been following along with my ebook, I would have been confused many times throughout the book. I would have loved for the audiobook to be more clear about which timeline was being focused on for each character chapter.

The time period and the detective were actually my favorite parts of this one. If you enjoy Agatha Christie novels or like a little mystery with your 1920's historical fiction, check this one out.

Nan was one of the most compelling characters I have read about in a long time. I really loved learning about her life and history and her reasons for pursuing Archie. Finbarr, Agatha, Bess and Inspector Chilton were all very likable characters as well and I enjoyed how they all connected and interacted with one another.

The only part I was disappointed with was when Nan spoils later parts of the book with her internal monologue. I didn't like that she let us know that she would eventually marry Archie and have his child in the middle of the book. I would've rather found out towards the end instead of feeling like she spoiled the ending for me halfway through.

Overall, I would still recommend this as the story and characters were fantastic.

Did not like the book and chose not to review it as I only do positive reviews. Couldn't deal with the sex in a story about Agatha Christie it felt wrong

I thought this book had a great premise - imagining what might have happened in the ten days that Agatha Christie disappeared. It was told from the perspective of her husband's mistress. It intertwined the mystery of where Agatha went, with the mistress' back story and even a murder. I found it really interesting though realize it's a totally fictional story about a real person.

Avid readers of Agatha Christie’s novels may well know that the famous author herself was the star/subject of one of her greatest mysteries. Why did Mrs. Christie disappear for all those days? It is not really a spoiler to say that she learned that Archie was having an affair. Still, where did she go? What made Archie seem so appealing to two very different women?

In addition to that mystery, who was the other woman? What was her story? Can readers empathize with her?

Learn more about both women in this historical fiction title. Nina de Gramont tells her story well. She makes Nan’s story believable and this is more her story than Agatha’s.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this title. All opinions are my own.

"there's no predicting what people will do."

The mystery of Agatha Christie's disappearance and what she did during that missing time has always been a delicious mystery. I love that she never told and we never knew. I love the idea of her last mystery, unsolved.

But this story was a struggle for me. I think, first and foremost, it's told from the POV of the mistress - the woman Archie, Agatha's husband, broke Agatha's heart about and said he was leaving her for. I just struggled to like her and to be okay with what she was doing. The author, I felt, did an amazing job of really painting Agatha Christie as an amazing women, kind and thoughtful. But for every turn that Agatha was considerate and thoughtful to Nan, I didn't feel like she did the same for her. It was hard to read and just grated on me the longer I had to sit with her POV. I did like that it switched around and gave other POV but I didn't need Archie's either.

All in all, this would have been much more entertaining, at least for me, if it hadn't been a story about Agatha Christie and instead was just a story about a missing rich woman, her questionable husband and the policeman that searched for her. It was entertaining on its own.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

You may be hearing a lot of hype about this book and believe me, it’s well deserved. The story is multi-layered and faceted, containing both a very Agatha Christie story within it, as well as a tale of two women from very different backgrounds facing very different decisions and futures, bound together by one man and one child. I loved it.

The story takes place during the infamous 11 days in 1926 when Agatha Christie disappeared. She was already becoming a well-known author, and an enormous man-hunt spanning the length and breadth of Britain was put in place. When she eventually reappeared, she claimed to have no idea what had happened. In recent years, different theories have been floated, my favorite being a Dr Who episode where she time travels with the doctor. Author Nina de Gramont has an idea that is certainly more prosaic, but just as fascinating.

The Christie Affair follows Agatha, her crushing disappointment at learning her husband Archie plans to leave her for another woman, and the story of the other woman, Nan. It’s told from Nan’s viewpoint, and we watch her grow up in London, visit her father’s family in Ireland, fall in love with an Irish lad, and have all that crushed by the First World War. An unspeakable cruelty keeps them apart, and although one can move beyond it, the other can’t.

What does all this have to do with Agatha’s disappearance? Oh, so much! The Christie Affair is a puzzle box of a book, with plot reveal after plot reveal taking you down a twisty path that any reader will enjoy immensely. It’s so well done! Highly recommended.

Beautiful cover, Interesting storyline, but I can not get into this book. Thank you for the opportunity. If I do finish it someday, I will update my review.

This book had a good premise. What happened to Agatha Christie when she disappeared for several years? I have always wondered. However, this take was rather boring. I found it hard to keep reading. I picked this one up on a whim because it sounded like mystery but this book would be a historical fiction. It just was not for me. It was too slow and I did not know if I liked this authors fictionalized version of events.

I actually started out by reading The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont, but it was moving so slowly for me that way that I knew I had to switch to the audiobook. After waiting a bit for that, I finally got it and man did that make all of the difference. This can be a confusing story, especially on audio, since it can be hard to tell who is speaking due to the writing style/format of the book. However, since I started by reading it that seemed to really give me an advantage and after I knew the flow, I was able to easily follow along. I would recommend that if you were going to go the audiobook route to maybe start with the book, or at least have a copy handy until you feel comfortable with it. I ended up loving this on audio and the narrator Lucy Scott did a lovely job. I didn't think she did anything special to differentiate the viewpoints, but she was nice to listen to and did a great job overall.

It was really interesting reading the story of Agatha Christie’s disappearance from the POV of Archie's mistress, and in reality, this book is really more about Nan and how she affects Agatha's marriage than it is about Agatha herself. Nan's backstory broke my heart and made me really feel for her character as much as I know what she was doing with Archie was wrong. I loved the way de Gramont wove the different timelines as well as creating an epilogue of sorts set in 1928. Minus the slight confusion of who was speaking when at first, I did love the way she wrote this story, and it feels like Nan is talking right to the reader. There are a couple of surprises in The Christie Affair so I won't say anything else, but I would say if you love Christie and are interested in her disappearance at all, I would definitely recommend reading this.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

In 1926, author Agatha Christie had become well-known for her mystery novels. On a December night, she disappeared for 11 days and was the subject of an unprecedented manhunt. When she was recognized in a hotel, registered under an assumed name, she claimed to have no memory of how she'd arrived there or what had happened to her. This is a fictional account of the unsolved mystery - with the emphasis on the "fictional" part. And the publisher's information is upfront about this, pointing out that Nina de Gramont has "reimagined" what happened.
The story is told by Christie's husband's mistress, whom he later married after divorcing Agatha. And while it's partially about what may have happened to trigger the disappearance and how and what happened to Agatha Christie during those 11 days, it's more about the mistress. Why did she target Archie Christie to take on as a lover in the first place? Ultimately it's her story, and it's a tragic one. It's an enjoyable read - there are definitely more mysteries at play than just Agatha Christie's disappearance, and yes, there are murders as well. The real-life mystery isn't solved here, but the fictional story is an interesting one, and is also based on a different historical story from the time period.
Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing a digital copy for an unbiased review.

I love a good historical fiction book, and this one did not disappoint!

I love the plot of this book and how it very loosely follows the events that led up to the 11 day disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1926, after her husband told her he was leaving her for another woman.

The story is told through the eyes and perspective of the mistress, and it is very interesting.

Overall, I did enjoy this one and would recommend it to others to read.

I found this to be an intriguing novel that revolves around Agatha Christie. It was an imagination of her life and why she disappeared for awhile. There is another woman in the story who became close to Agatha’s husband. The stories of both women are weaved together and revealed throughout the book.

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and Nina de Gramont for free e-ARC of The Christie Affair in return of my honest review.

Once Agatha Christie has disappeared for eleven days, and Nina de Gramont presents her version of events that preceded the disappearance, provides some explanations for the mystery and shows her talent in spinning the story of Agatha Christie’s own mystery.

I love Agatha Christie and her work, and I was looking forward to read this one. I have mixed feelings about the book - I kind of liked how the story went, how the author panted Agatha and other characters, I liked that the narrator was not Agatha herself. However, I couldn’t brush my feelings for Miss Nan O’Dea, the narrator, the third woman. I didn’t like her and her character, possibly because she was intervening in a marriage, therefore her story and her explanations were lost for me.

Overall, it was an enjoyable book and U glad I had a chance to read it.

I wasn’t overly familiar with Agatha Christie or her novels before, but you better believe I’m going to brush up now! The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont was a really enjoyable read filled with nods to the master herself. What chronicles the disappearance of Agatha Christie, reveals even more mysteries, in true AC fashion. The novel really picked up speed at the end and drew the reader in with playful acknowledgements of the audience. If pens and poison are your thing as well as some intertextuality, I highly recommend this speedy escape.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and the author for the e-arc. I’m behind in reviews, so you can find this wherever you love to buy books now!