Nina de Gramont is a professor of Creative Writing at University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She is the author of The Last September (Algonquin 2015) as well as several young adult novels. I had much higher hopes for this book. If it wasn’t our book club read I probably would have DNFd it! As the title suggests, this book has to do with famed mystery writer, Agatha Christie. However, the tale is not told entirely from her perspective. Instead, we meet Nan O’Dea, the woman who is actually having an affair with Arthur Christie. That’s right, the first husband of Agatha Christie. As the story begins, Arthur is promising Nan that he is finally going to tell his wife that he is leaving her. This is something that he does and soon after Agatha disappears. As the country mobilizes to find the authoress, Nan relishes readers with a tale of the present investigation and her very troubled past in Ireland. As mentioned above, I went into this unprepared for how completely fictionalized the main story in it was, so that would be a big caveat for anyone interested in the events of Agatha Christie’s disappearance. In reading it, it ended up being a fairly different book than the one I’d imagined it to be. Archibald Christie's mistress, Nan O'Dea, has an allure he can't seem to resist. The attraction is so entrancing, Archie has decided to tell his fiercely loyal and well-known wife, Agatha, he plans to divorce her and marry Nan. Soon after their conversation, Agatha disappears without a trace and a frantic search ensues.

The Christie Affair is an ingenious new psychological suspense novel... richly imagined; inventive and, occasionally, poignant; and about as true-to-life as Christie’s own tales." — The Washington Post While the frantic search was on for Christie, the possible catalyst for her disappearance was her husband Archie’s infidelities. Archie had apparently fallen in love and asked Agatha for a divorce, not long after the passing of her mother. Who had Archie fallen so hard for that he was willing to break up his marriage? Who was ‘Nan O’Dea’ and why did she set out to lure Archie away from his wife? Nina de Gramont's The Christie Affair is a beguiling novel of star-crossed lovers, heartbreak, revenge, and murder—and a brilliant re-imagination of one of the most talked-about unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century. The Christie Affair follows the story of Nan O’Dea, the mistress of Agatha Christie’s husband. The book takes place in the days preceding and during the infamous 11-day disappearance of Agatha Christie.

Nan O’Dea already had a history when she met and had an affair with Archie Christie, husband of Agatha Christie. Anyway, de Gramont is a local author, and when I saw it was about families and mental health, I knew I had to read it. I could not put it down. I have been eagerly awaiting a new book from her. The Christie Affair is entirely different from The Last September, but as with the former, de Gramont’s emotional writing shines.

The Christie Affair is a light read with sort of a dreamy rose-tinted quality to its narration. This story took a different turn than what I was expecting, but I thought the way the story comes together at the end was fairly clever. The Christie Affair is a mystery centered around the sensational and scandalous chain of events that led to Agatha Christie’s disappearance for 11 days in 1926. Told through the eyes of Agatha Christies’ husband’s mistress, a story of secrets, revenge, and lust emerges, resulting in a startling murder. Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own. Nan is part of the Christies’ social circle. Agatha arrives at Archie’s office and convinces Nan to go to lunch with her. As they say goodbye after their meal, Agatha pointedly says that since Nan doesn’t love Archie, she should “leave him to her person who does.” The Christie Affair initially didn’t capture my attention the way I was hoping it would, and it felt a little like a bait-and-switch. If you’re reading it because you love Agatha Christie, I imagine you might find it to be not quite what you were expecting, as I did.In Part I, Nan urges Archie to finally leave his wife, Agatha Christie, who is a well-known writer. Agatha and Archie have a daughter, Teddy. Nan doesn't love Archie, but she wants him anyway.Archie goes out to buy an engagement ring and the next morning he breaks the news to Agatha. Agatha is heartbroken. Nan O'Dea (based on Nancy Neele, Archie's mistress and second wife) was Archie Christie's mistress. In this book she tells her story. Why she began the affair, what her life before Archie was life, what she experienced as a young woman, and why she wanted to steal Archie away from Agatha. Inspector Chilton heads to the Christie home. He wonders if Agatha committed suicide. Archie tells Chilton he think she had a nervous breakdown. The parlor maid tells police there was another woman involved. Nan goes to hide out at The Bellefort hotel and Finbarr shows up. She recalls the Spanish Flu going through her family around the time she found out she was pregnant. Finbarr caught the flu and Nan tried to see him but Finbarr’s mom sent her away. Nan recalls her daughter being born and that she refused to sign papers allowing Genevieve to be adopted. Sister Mary Clare promises she will look out for Genevieve and that no one will adopt her.

I was absolutely riveted to the drama, so entrenched in Nan and Agatha’s competition that it took me by surprise when I found myself mired in a novel of suspense. Well, duh! We are talking about Agatha Christie here. How very diabolically clever! Chilton learns that Mrs. Marston, the murder victim, had been a nun at an orphanage and Mr. Marston was a priest. She was Sister Mary Clare, the nun Nan tried to strangle and he was Father Joseph, the priest who sexually assaulted girls at the convent. At the convent, Nan’s pregnant friend Bess is raped by Father Joseph. Shortly after, Bess goes into labor and her baby dies. But eventually her American soldier comes for her and she leaves the convent. The mystery of Agatha Christie’s disappearance is endlessly fascinating to me. I admit, though, that I have never found myself all that curious about Archie’s second wife and have never considered what her personal circumstances might have been. The Christie Affair is my favorite kind of story: a fresh take on a real-life event, layered with mystery and filled with breath-taking plot twists. Toss in the windswept English countryside and a tragic past, and I’m done for. Nina de Gramont’s novel shines on so many levels, it’s hard to keep count: as an ode to Agatha Christie’s legacy, as a dashing love story, and as a tribute to complicated, determined women. Magnificent."P.S. There’s a drunk history episode about her disappearance if you aren’t familiar with the story.) In Part II, we learn that Agatha had been distraught and got into an accident. She had narrowly missed running into Finbarr, who had received a letter from Nan not too long ago describing her affair and her plan to seduce Archie. Finbarr was looking to talk to Agatha, since it seems they have a mutual interest in preventing Nan's plot. Coincidentally, an elderly lady with dementia, Annabelle Oliver, had abandoned her car a short distance away from Agatha's accident. Finbarr and Agatha took the abandoned car and drove off, ending up at the manor house where Chilton found Agatha (and Finbarr). I’m still thinking about this book though I rated it. The part I ended up being most interested in was talking about the home for fallen women, how the nuns treated them and the anguish of being separated from their babies especially in light of other novels I’ve read on the same theme.