I got this book because I loved the premise and the cover was just so pretty. Unfortunately, I didn’t live the book as much as I wanted to. Agatha Christie’s character came across as someone who didn’t really care for much other than what happened to her. She was selfish/self-centered and made me wonder if she even held an ounce of love for her daughter. Then there was Nan, whom I almost liked except she wasn’t better than Ágatha Christie, she was probably even worst.

This was somewhat dark in both thoughts and actions, and there were a couple of scenes that I ended up skipping because of rape and murder.

This was not my cup of tea ☕️. Not the type of Agatha Christie story I’m used to.

Fun What If for the 11 days that Agatha Christie went missing in 1926. But also very bleak picture of what it was like to be a single pregnant woman back then.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the chance to listen to this audiobook in exchange for my honest review

This is such a gorgeous cover and it came with the best promo box!

Sheepishly, I have to admit that I’ve yet to read an Agatha Christie book BUT I have always been fascinated by her disappearance so I was excited by the idea of an alternate fictional tale on a real life event and such a juicy POV coming from her husbands lover!!

While I’ve typically enjoyed a mystery and historical fiction hybrid in the past, unfortunately something was just missing for me with this one. I did still enjoy it and found it quite intriguing nonetheless!

The pomp of The Christie Affair is delightful - mysterious, intriguing and scandalous. This historical fiction novel is set in 1926, staring Agatha Christie. It begins the day Agatha's husband shares his infidelity and she disappears. The Christie Affair tells of Agatha's time away and the back story of her husband's lover. This novel is a splendid display of why we love Agatha Christie and how ALL the characters come together in the end for closure on the story.

"A mystery should end with a killer revealed. And, so it has.
A quest should end with a treasure restored. And, so it has.
A tragic lover must end with its lovers dead or parted.
But a romance, that should end with lovers reunited..."

Thank you MacMillan Audio for the complimentary copy of the audiobook.

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont is an alternative history account of what might have happened in the eleven days of famed mystery writer, Agatha Christie's disappearance.. Nan O'Dea relates the story. She also happens to be Archie Christie's, husband to Agatha, mistress.

Nan, within the first chapter, full admits she doesn't love Archie so why would she do all in her power to have him and no one else? Here is the mystery Nan relates as she slowly reveals her motivations. In doing so, she'll touch on World War I and it's aftermath, the Irish fight for independence that followed immediately after and even touch on the infamous Magdalene Laundries.

Nan, as a narrator, tells a lot more than she shows and this slowed down the novel immensely. de Gramont follows the story for the whole of the eleven days of Agatha's disappearance but the bulk of the novels action takes place in the last 3 days. de Gramont has a strong knowledge of the time period, but often gets lost in her own descriptions. This is an ambitious novel, touching on critical points in history through the lens of a famous disappearance but in doing so falls a bit short of the de Gramont's high aspirations.

Note: I received a complementary copy of this audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Audiobook was wonderful! Great narration and an interesting look into one of the biggest authors most private moments.

What did I like? I’m not vapid enough to care about those illicit missing eleven days. Hard enough to deal with a scandal with her husband cheating on one of the greatest literary minds ever. The book takes some twists and turn through some of Agatha’s reasoning and the child’s parentage speculation. All very thought provoking but a painful story.

Would I recommend or buy? No, it gave me some awful feelings for Agatha and those eleven days will remain a mystery despite speculation. The book tries to breach beyond that but I myself could not.

I received a complimentary copy to listen to or read and voluntarily left a review.

I'll be honest The Christie Affair didn't quite work for me. I found neither Nan nor Agatha particularly likeable, but less in that anti-heroine sort of way and more in the off-putting way. While certain parts of the mystery and how everything connected were fun to put together I can say it was enough to get me over the hump. I think the narrator did an admirable job with the different characters, but not an audiobook I'll revist.

This book is an excellent historical fiction about the time where Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days and the world was in shock wondering where she could be..
Told from the perspective of Agathas husbands mistress, Nan recalls her story from her childhood to the present flipping back and forth.
This was a very interesting read and enjoyable as well.
Thanks to MacMillan Audio and Netgalley for this advanced audio copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this audiobook! I don’t usually read historical fiction but was intrigued because this story was based on the real-life disappearance of Agatha Christie. I loved that this book was told from the point of view of Agatha’s husband’s mistress and that the relationship between Agatha and Nan (the mistress) was fully explored and imagined. The narration was also delightful.

I would actually give this 4.5 stars. Absolutely riveting. In 1926, Agatha Christie, the most famous mystery novelist in the world, disappeared for 11 days. When she was found, Mrs. Christie “couldn’t remember” what had happened or where she had been. That is a historical fact. This fictional novel attempts to piece together what actually happened during those 11 days. And it nicely ties in Colonel Christie’s mistress and her story. There is also a lovely Irishman, a kind police detective and a murder (really nice touch!) that helps move everything along. Really, the whole thing reads like one of Mrs. Christie’s own mystery novels. Brilliantly done!

*Special thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for the e-audiobook.*

I didn’t know Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days, and she never shared details of that disappearance. This historical fiction novel presents a story of what happened during those 11 days, and it is told from the perspective of Colonel Christie’s, Agatha’s husband, mistress.

Once I pieced together what was happening, I was hooked. At first, the timeline seemed a bit jumbled– mainly because I was listening to the audio version. I couldn’t tell if Nan was telling the story before, during, or after initially.

Nan O’Dea gives her own life details leading up to her romance with Archie Christie. The most interesting parts of the story were the flashbacks to Nan’s time in the Irish convent as a pregnant, unwed mother.

What I loved most about the book is the various sub-plots that all got tied together with the larger story of Agatha’s disappearance. I will say Agatha Christie is almost a secondary character in this novel as Nan tells the story. Nan’s story is a mix of love, lies, and murder. If you are hoping for more of Mrs. Christie, you need another book.

Agatha Christie novels often resolved with the simplest explanations being what is true. This story also does that, but the author puts enough clues and flashbacks that you question what you think is correct. I appreciate the amount of research Nina de Gramont put into this book from the setting descriptions to creating characters based on real-life people in Agatha Christie’s circle.

Lucy Scott did a great job with this audio performance. If you enjoy audiobooks, I highly recommend this one! Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Christie Affair was such an entertaining piece of historical fiction—narrated by Archie Christie’s mistress, Nan O’Dea (loosely based on Christie’s mistress and 2nd wife) she explains what exactly happened during the famous writer’s mysterious and highly publicized eleven day disappearance.

It would seem odd that she would know what her lover’s wife was doing when no one else in England had a clue, but she manages to weave a tale that will have readers believing it surely was true. Going back and forth between the present day and her youth, we learn about Nan’s motivations and how she ended up in Archie and Agatha’s life.

Though Nan comes across as a bit of an unreliable narrator, especially when she explicitly speaks to the reader, her story makes us root for her, despite the fact that she aided in splitting up the Christie marriage. Nan’s tale is full of unexpected twists and turns (it’s been a quite a while since I’ve been surprised in a plotline) and surely would do Agatha Christie the writer proud.

The Christie Affair comes out on February 1st and if you like audio books, Lucy Scott does a phenomenal job with this one. Even if you haven’t ever read an Agatha Christie novel, you can still enjoy this story I promise! Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and of course Nina de Gramont for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

The Christie Affair was a good read by Nina de Garment. This book reimagines the unexplained eleven day disappearance of Agatha Christie that captivated the world. This book is told from the point of view of Miss Nan O’Dea. She is a fictional character that is based on a real person. In 1925, she infiltrated the world of author Agatha Christie and her husband Archie. Nan becomes Archie’s mistress. Why did Nan make herself a part of the Christies world? What did it have to do with the eleven days Agatha Christie disappeared. You get taken back in time to Ireland, to a young woman in love, and to the time before The Great War. You meet Nan and the man she’s destined to be with, until war, pandemic, and shameful secrets tear them apart. What drove Nan to seek vengeance, destroy a woman’s marriage, and murder. I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more by the author.

I am torn on this book. As a piece of historical fiction, it is engaging and well-written. De Gramont has clearly done her research, and it is a strong piece of hist-fic, with a mystery included to boot.

However, it really has little to do with Agatha Christie, and anyone could have been subbed in for Christie. I do recognise that marketing often falls under the publisher rather than the author, but I do feel misled with this book. I didn't expect Christie to be the main character, but I didn't expect her to be nearly irrelevant.

The narrator was wonderful, though- she handled accents well, and the brief bit of singing was lovely. I wasn't distracted or taken out of listening at any point, which is rare for me!

So this book was hard to follow in my opinion. I almost put it down in my started but did not finish spot. However I am happy I stuck it out until the end. About three fourths into the book everything comes together and it all makes sense what’s happening and the build up of the characters makes complete sense. Once I got to that point in the story I didn’t want to put it down- I just had to know what would happen. It’s a sad type of early 1900’s love story.

The beginning was slow for me- I wonder if it was because of the audiobook format. But as the story and the characters came together it was really engaging. I was much more interested in the flashbacks to her experience with the nuns and priests. We could have done a whole book just on that!

i had a hard time with the narrator and with the book. I didn't really enjoy the book because I felt it was slow, it was a DNF for me.

I have really mixed feelings about this book. I read another book a short time ago (The Mystery of Mrs. Christie) that explored this time period in Agatha Christie's life. Before that time, I had never heard of her disappearance and was intrigued. I have to say that I found the fictional explanation of her disappearance much more plausible in the other book than I did in this book. To me, the fictional account of her disappearance in The Christie Affair was just so convoluted! I got to the point where I was rolling my eyes and just thinking that it was so unbelievable. Also, with the book being told from Nan (the mistress's point of view) Agatha was just not a main character at all in the book, which I found disappointing. On a good note, I did enjoy hearing about Nan's early life (at least until some things revealed at the end!). I did thoroughly enjoy the narrator, Lucy Scott though! I plan to look up more books read by this very talented reader. Her ability to change voices kept me interested in the book the entire way through.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC of this audiobook.

Overall I really enjoyed this imagining of part of Agatha Christie’s life. I didn’t know much about her so these little glimpses of truth within the fiction were interesting. I did find it to be a little on the long repetitive side but enjoyed overall.

What lengths would you go to get back the one you love?
When Agatha Christie's first husband Archibald informed her that he was leaving her for his mistress her heart was broken. Her plan to go and win him back was soon changed when she met a man from Nan's (Archibald mistress) past formed a plan with Agatha that would benefit them both.
For 11 days Agatha was missing while a man hunt through England was underway looking for her and it was a mystery to many where she was and what she was doing. This book delves into not only where she was but what she was doing those days and the impact it had on her marriage.

I had high hopes for this book however was a little disappointed it was being told from the view point from Nan the mistress. Had there been more points of view and less about Nan and her past I think I would have enjoyed the story more. The way the narrator tried to use a man's voice when talking as the husband and the other men in the book was also not pleasant and somewhat off-putting when listening to the audio version.