The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

 

Many readers know about the time in 1926 when Agatha Christie disappeared for eleven days.  There was a nationwide hunt and she was eventually found in a coastal town and insisted she remembered nothing.  This is that story but told from another perspective.  This is the perspective of Nan O'Dea who is Archie Christie's mistress and second wife.  In this telling, Agatha disappeared after Archie informed her that he would be divorcing her and marrying Nan.

Nan grew up between London with a large family of sisters and summers in Ireland at her uncle's farm.  There she met the love of her life, Finnbar.  They plan to marry but World War I intervenes.  When Nan finds herself pregnant, she is taken to an orphanage run by the Catholic Church.  There pregnant unmarried girls deliver their babies who are then adopted out.  Nan runs away after her daughter is adopted.  

In this imagining, a hotel is full of people who become suspects after a newly married couple is murdered .  There is Nan and some of her friends from the orphanage.  Finnbar is nearby and there is a British policeman called Chilton who is assigned both to the murder and to look for Mrs. Christie.  The reader learns why Nan went after Archie and why she won't give him up even to have a life with Finnbar.  

I listened to this book and the narrator did an excellent job.  When Agatha was speaking, the voice reminded the reader of the upper class English life.  When the nuns were speaking, one could imagine the sarcastic smiles they had as they pretended they were there for the best outcome for the girls.  Nina de Gramont captures the time and place perfectly.  Her imaginative take on the event is one that will remain in the reader's memory long after the last page is read.  This novel is recommended for readers of women's fiction.