My thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for a review copy of this book.

Nina de Gramont weaves a rather interesting and very readable tale in The Christie Affair but while I enjoyed reading it a lot, I had some reservations which have prevented me from rating it as high as I might have otherwise.

The Christie Affair is centred around the period that Agatha Christie went missing for 11 days. This was in 1926, when not long after her mother’s death, something that devastated her, her husband Archie Christie left her for another woman, Nancy (Neale) with whom he had been having an affair. In this version, we have a fictionalised version of Nancy, Nan O'Dea, with a very different back story than her real-life counterpart, and it is Nan who is our narrator. We follow two parallel stories, one the narrative of Christie's disappearance as Nan recounts events as they unfolded day by day, and the second from Nan's past in England and Ireland which left her lost and bitter. In the present, we see the events that preceded Agatha's disappearance, and the efforts that were made to search for her by the police who organized a manhunt on an unprecedented scale as well as others like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy Sayers who relied on their interest in the occult to find clues. (I knew about Conan Doyle’s interest in the supernatural but not that Sayers was into it as well). Among the searchers is fictional Inspector Chilton who also stumbles upon a murder mystery in the process. Meanwhile we learn of Nan’s childhood in England and the time she spent in Ireland (her father was Irish) with relatives and also of the boy she met and fell in love with there.

This was as I wrote a very readable book, and I enjoyed the writing and the pacing. The author I think was very imaginative in the story she has created around a subject that still remains somewhat of a mystery—where Christie disappeared to for those 11 days.

The murder mystery element of the plot was something I hadn’t expected when going into the story but it turned out very interesting, especially since I didn’t really see the solution coming at all. Nor indeed did I guess how the two threads of the story, in fact more than two, would connect up. Here again the book took me by surprise and things began to make a lot more sense and fell into place rather well. I also liked that Nan is not portrayed as the typical home wrecker or ‘villainess'. In fact, the reader is able to sympathise with her almost all through.

But the qualities of the book notwithstanding, I did have a few reservations, perhaps related to each other. The first was regarding the fact and fiction blend in the book. I mean I know a lot of historical fiction weaves together real and fictional elements (events and people) but here I wasn’t sure what to make of the aspects the author chose to keep (like the homes where Archie met Nan) and those she fictionalised (like Nan's background and even personality; her feelings vis-a-vis Archie which make sense in the story but would not apply to the real-life Nancy).

The other part was Nan's story. This brings up a scenario and an issue that has been dealt with in another recent much-praised novel (I don’t want to talk about it too much as it would be a spoiler). While this is something that needs to be talked of and I think the author told the story very well evoking all the anger and sympathy it calls for, the Agatha Christie story didn’t feel to me the right ‘vehicle’ to tack this onto. It didn’t seem to me plausible here (particularly the liberties it took with elements of the real-life track).

So this turned out a book that I enjoyed reading (the story is really good and I appreciated all the surprise elements) but I think if the author had fictionalised the entire thing, even the Christie story, may be created fictional counterparts for them too, it would have worked a lot better for me.

3.75 stars

It is no secret I am a big Agatha Christie Fan, and her own mysterious 11 day disappearance in 1926 is a fascinating subject, especially as Christie herself refused to talk about it. So when the prospect of a Murder Mystery told from the perspective of the mistress that prompted Christie to abscond I leapt at the chance to read it early. Unfortunately I was left disappointed.

The first half of the book really drew me in. it was really interesting laying out the ground work of the fictional tale around the factual information of Christie’s life up to the day she disappeared. De Gramont managed to blur the line between fact and fiction really effectively and I did enjoy that there were a number of nods to Christies works, with side characters sharing names with well known characters from her books. What I did find strange was that this was acknowledged by the character of Nan as where Christie got the names for those characters, but the character of Christie did not actually meet half of these characters throughout this story. It was little details like this that occurred about 50% of t6he way through that really turned the tide of opinion for me on this one.

What was really disappointing for me was the mystery itself. It didn’t actually hold much influence on the story itself. We got a lot of background but when it came to the actual mystery it was almost skipped over, blink and you would miss it. It was bland and held nothing of the intrigue that you would expect being so closely linked to Christie. The Agatha Christie aspects could have been completely removed from the book and the same story with the same amount of emotional impact could have been told. Christie was more of a McGuffin to the story, just an pretty convivence to hang the story on and not really integral to the overall narrative.

The ending itself was also a real miss for me. Instead of Christie’s reappearance and following actual history, the book embraces its fiction and puts in a rather forced happy ending with a bizarre romance twist which I just didn’t get at all. Why twist what actually happened? Again it just didn’t leave me happy as a reader.

I picked this book up as a Christie fan, I wanted to a Christie worthy mystery and I feel I was miss sold what this book was about. I got an interesting emotional tale of the hardships of post war Ireland with a damp squib of a murder mystery slapped on the end. It just didn’t excite me as a reader.

An excellent read. Well written and intriguing from beginning to end, not surprising as it’s about Agatha Christie the best suspense writer of all time. I throughly recommend this book for anyone interested in period history and drama.

Wow what a book. I didn’t really know what I was expecting but I really enjoyed it since page 1. It read very similarly to an Agatha book which I enjoyed there was even a mystery unravelling during the story. The only thing I didn’t like was how it was written in nan’s perspective the whole time and made it more about her than Agatha but overall thoroughly enjoyable.

‘The Disappearance.
Last Day Seen.
Friday, 3 December 1926’
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What a joy to read. This one was a departure from the usual genres I would read, but taking a step outside the box really paid off. A Downton Abbey-esque vibe throughout and I found I couldn’t put it down!
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In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days. Aside from the famous author herself, only I know the truth of her disappearance.
I’m no Hercule Poirot.
I’m her Husband’s mistress.
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Naturally I jumped on this book as soon as I read the synopsis as Agatha Christie’s disappearance has always fascinated me and I love that it has given way to people creating stories and mysteries around it. This book gives you a wonderful mystery hidden in amongst a story of love, enduring life and what we’re capable of when we’re driven to the edge. I couldn’t have loved this one more, the writing, the story, the setting, everything was just beautifully done. Definitely one to have on your list for 2022!!
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Thank you so much to Netgalley & PanMacmillan for the beautiful ARC! I couldn’t have been more thrilled to have received one!

I was intrigued to read this book right from the moment I read the blurb. I have only read one Agatha Christie book and I thought it was meh but what I was interested about was the dynamic between the two women. How they should be at odds, the wife and the other woman, but they are inextricably linked and there is so much more to their individual and joint stories. I especially loved the flashbacks to Nan's past and thought it really fleshed out and developed her character. You could really see where her motivation came from and why she does what she does.

I also love the cover! If I saw this cover in a bookshop I would be straight over there. Thoroughly enjoyed this read.

The Christie Affair by Nina De Gramont ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Apparently in 1926 Agatha Christie mysteriously vanished for 11 days and this book is the imaginings of the author for the reasons behind her disappearance.

I don’t want to give too much away but the story follows both Agatha and Nan (the mistress and soon to be wife of Agatha’s husband) and includes romance, intrigue and of course murder!!

Really enjoyed this cleverly woven tale and would highly recommend to fans of Agatha Christie or Kate Quinn

A fictionalised version of raw 11 days Agatha Christie went missing in 1926 was all I knew of this book going into it. The story delivered everything you could think, unimaginable heartbreak, sadness, loss, love, and happiness.

This book did not end how I would have liked but I nevertheless loved the ending. There were parts that were extremely difficult to read and there are a few trigger warnings so please look those up.

I loved the character of Nan and the way she told the story was like a conversation by the fire. This evoked strong Agatha Christie vibes for me in the way the mystery unravelled which was a brilliant touch.

I would highly recommend this book to fans of the mystery genre.

I was very much looking forward to reading this book, because I've loved Agatha Christie's work ever since I was twelve (I have her whole collection of novels plus I visited her holiday house Greenway in Devon).

The book opens with this sentence:

'A long time ago, in another country, I nearly killed a woman'.

This immediately piqued my interest and I had to find out who was involved.

This story is narrated by Nancy O'Dea, also known as Nan. When we meet her she is Archie Christie's secretary and his mistress. At the beginning, Nan doesn't want Archie to leave his wife, the crime novelist Agatha Christie for her just yet, as Agatha is still mourning the death of her mother. This suggests that Nan has some compassion. However, Archie is a man who is used getting his own way and he is adamant he is ending things as soon as he can.

Now, Agatha suspects that her husband has a mistress and it's Nan. She wants to fight for her marriage as she loves her husband deeply. Archie ends his and Agatha's marriage in an appalling way: he gives his wife some hope by sitting at a dinner with her, followed by a night spent together. The next day, he simply tells her that he wants a divorce.

These events lead to the greatest mystery surrounding Agatha Christie. We know she disappeared for eleven days in 1926 following her marriage's break-up. What really happened, we will never know. The Queen of Crime is now deceased, and throughout her life she claimed amnesia. Nina de Gramont takes the reader on a journey of what could have been...

Archie reacts coldly to his wife going missing - he thinks it's a ploy, a last resort to save their marriage. He wants to protect Nan at all cost. In those days, being an unmarried woman and a mistress would cause a huge scandal. He tells Nan to leave for a while until Agatha is found.

Nan travels up to Yorkshire, unaware that it was also a place chosen by Agatha. The lives of the two women will collide and reveal a shocking secret. It turns out, they have something else in common, not just Archie.

My favourite part of the book was Nan's backstory: how she went on holiday to her Auntie Rosie's and Uncle Jack's farm in Ireland as a twelve year-old girl. This is where she met Finbarr and they became best friends. She fell in love with the Irish countryside and every time she returned to London, she begged to go back to Ireland again.

Nan continued to visit Ireland each year and eventually her and Finbarr fell in love. But then in 1914 the WWI started and Finbarr had enlisted to fight... What's really happened to Nan in Ireland? How is all connected to Agatha Christie?

You'll have to read for yourselves to find out. I enjoyed this book, however, I much preferred Nan's parts describing the events in Ireland, compared to Agatha's disappearance. I think it's because I know so much about Agatha that I knew that the parts depicted by de Gramont were fiction and speculation, the 'what if', and not the real events. Because I know for a fact that Agatha had a biological child of her own, the explanation that Teddy wasn't hers and it was in fact Nan's didn't sit well with me either.

Saying that, it's still a very good novel. I liked the concept and how it concentrated around the mistress, not the wife.

Due for release early 2022, I’m grateful to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this before publication. The Christie Affair focuses us on the imagined story of what happened when the novelist Christie disappeared for a period of eleven days.
Though I was aware of this period in Christie’s story, I didn’t know any details and I found Gramont’s version of events highly entertaining. I had expected the character of Agatha to play more of a key role in the story but I actually found myself caught up in the story of our narrator.
Our narrator, Nan, is a young woman who has been having an affair with Archie Christie. For reasons that become clear later, she is determined to make a future with him. Obviously, the fact he is married makes this difficult. When Agatha is told about the affair she is angry…and the next thing we know, her car is found abandoned by a nearby lake and there is no trace of her. She’s abandoned her daughter, taken little with her and the worst is assumed about her husband.
Though at this stage in her life Christie is not the celebrated author she becomes, she’s certainly known well-enough that her disappearance sparks a nationwide manhunt. Archie is under suspicion, and people are determined to find her/learn what happened.
In spite of her being the other woman, Nan is a likeable character who actually seems more central to events than we might expect. As we unearth Nan’s story it’s unclear how much is true, but she certainly knows how to spin a yarn.
Imagined it may be, but this tale of Christie’s missing days was a cracking read.

It's a little novel that made me cry! Big tears...
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Astonishing, astounding and so gripping!

An unbelievable fictional journey, unforgettable....it's going to take me a while to untangle my emotions...

Agatha Christie, 1926 and her weird disappearing act...for 10 days.....To this day....it's still a mystery...Go ahead and try to explain it...

But Nina de Gramont who has written the most incredible novel, gives us a unflinching look at human weaknesses......it's just too fantastic..it's just too rare...

Sorry but I will definitely write something even more emotional very soon... I'm just too overwhelmed tonight...

it's one of the best novels I have read in the longest time because I have never walked away from a novel missing its characters the way I miss them tonight! It's just a marvellous read!!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for this terrific ARC

Agatha Christie's husband had told her that he is leaving her for his mistress. She is very distressed and jumps in her car with the intention of going to where she knows they are spending the weekend and confronting them. However this doesn't happen as she crashes her car. Remarkably she is helped by an Finbarr, an Irishman who has a connection with her husband's mistress. They end up in Yorkshire, as does the mistress, Nell.
The story is told by Nell and we get her history and why she pursued Archie.
As I live close to Sunningdale, I was particularly interested in the descriptions and it made me smile when they mentioned the Silent Pool - I love their GIn and all of the legends attached to the pool.

I think all murder mystery fans are gripped by the idea of discovering what happened when our lord and saviour Agatha Christie went missing for eleven days - I know I am! The Christie Affair gives us a fictionalised version of what might have happened during those eleven days and what might have caused Miss Agatha to go missing in the first place.

It's certainly a fun read and I did enjoy Nina de Gramont's take on what might have happened but I did find the pacing a little strange (things didn't really get going until the third part) - I'd say borrow rather than buy.

If you’ve read anything about Agatha Christie’s life, you’ll probably have come across the mysterious incident in 1926 when she disappeared for 11 days after her husband asked her for a divorce because he had fallen in love with another woman. It sparked a massive hunt for her across the UK until she was found staying at a hotel in Harrogate. The newspapers reported that she was suffering from memory loss and Christie herself doesn’t even mention the incident in her autobiography. Nina De Gramont’s debut novel reimagines what happened, told from the perspective of the fictional Nan O’Dea. Nan is the woman who Christie’s husband is leaving her for – the Goodreads blurb describes her as “a fictional character but based on someone real, which is to say there was a woman who Archie Christie was leaving Agatha for – but that is about as far as the resemblance goes. The novel jumps backwards and forwards through time – showing the reader Nan’s tough upbringing in London and her escape to Ireland during the Great War alongside the hunt for Agatha and the events at the hotel that she’s staying at in Harrogate. Why has Nan infiltrated the Christie’s world and what is it she wants?

I really enjoyed reading this – but it’s so hard to explain why without revealing too much. In fact, I’ve tried three times just to write that plot summary without giving too much away. I think it’s fair to say that this departs a long way away from the actual facts of the Christie divorce fairly quickly. But the story sucks you in so completely that you end up googling to check which bits are real and which aren’t. It’s clever and enthralling and twistier than I expected it to be. There’s also a murder mystery plot in there that’s neatly reminiscent of something Christie herself wrote. I’ve written whole posts about fictionalised real lives, and if you like that sort of thing you should try this – although bear in mind those notes above about it not being what actually happened. It’s a thriller, it’s a mystery and it’s a romance. It’s also very easy to read and evocative. I read it on the sofa snuggled under a blanket wishing I was in front of a roaring fire, but I think it would also make a great read for the commute or a sun lounger. And it wouldn’t make a bad book club pick either. Well worth a look.

I found this to be an interesting imagining of what happened during Agatha Christie's 11 day disappearance told by her husband's lover Nan. We have the tale of now and Nan's earlier life unfolding.

The Christie Affair is a reimagining of the disappearance of Agatha Christie. Not told from the point of view of Agatha (as I was anticipating and hoping for - I should do better at reading the synopsis) it's told from the perspective of Nan O'Dea, Agatha's husband's mistress.

Told through a dual timeline, we learn Nan's back story and why she sets her sights on Archie Christie.

It's told in three parts and the first one is definitely slow with some long chapters. As we go through and get to know Nan more, we find she's not particularly reliable or likeable as a narrator.

BUT

Stick with it. It's so worth getting through the slow beginning and as we get to Part 3 things that seem quite odd, all come together and make a lot of sense.

3.75 stars for me.

A very very imaginative book giving explanation to the period and in which Agatha Christie vanished.
In the same vein as Agatha,s books it is a murder mystery with lots of twists and turns,
Interestingly it also deals in depth to the treatment of pregnant unmarried women in Ireland in the 1920 who under the guise of the Catholic Church were treated abominably and forced to give up their children a subject that has been in the media recently
It is a very rounded read with a successful conclusion.

I enjoyed this book to certain degree. It was ok but just not very memorable unfortunately! The idea of this book was bigger than the book unfortunately and I just couldn’t connect with the writing style

I was so excited when i was given the oppotunity to read this book pre publication, as a massive Christie fan, I just inhale all things Christie.
As the title suggest this book explores the affair that Agatha's husband had with a fictionlised charecter, that is based upon the actual mistress, Agatha however is just a 'prop' in which the author weaves the mistresses story.
It is also touted as another book that explores the eleven days that Agatha Christie went missing.

It is not a happy book, featuring some distressing subjects, but I think the author handled it well and is written with feeling and conviction.
I am glad to have been able to read this and when it comes out in late Janaury, I shall be purchasing myself a copy for my book collection.

Thank you Netgalled and the Publishers for enabling me to read this.

This is a wonderful novel set around the mystery of Agatha Christie's short disappearance n 1926. A fantastic read with a very clever story and wonderful characters. An amazing book to get totally lost in.