Title: The Christie Affair. A Novel
Author: Nina de Gramont
Pages: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publishing Date: 1st February 2022
Genre: Historical Fiction
Format: ebook
Rating: 5*
The story is told from Nan O'Shea's point of view, who was Archie Christie's mistress. He was Agatha Christie's first husband. O'Shea tells the story of the time when Agatha went missing for eleven days. Peppered throughout the novel is her story before she met Archie, when she lived in Ireland with her father's brother's family during summers, and in England with her family in the rest of the year.
I liked the memories of her life before she became involved with Archie. That plot was the most interesting to me, especially as I like learning about characters through memories or flashbacks. The two plots overlap as the story progresses, and we learn how she came to be Christie's mistress and what prompted all her decisions. As a reader, you're offered more and more information as you read, until you can't help but let yourself be reeled in. The story is gripping and it kept me interested to the end. However, I didn't like the ending, specifically the tone at the end. It was as if she brushed everything under the rug, and it didn't match the Agatha throughout the novel with the Agatha she portrayed at the end. Nor, does it match the narrator with the Nan O'Shea in the end. I also didn't like when the author addressed the reader directly; it didn't suit the story.
I liked the author's style. I can tell she studied her sentences, and worked over and polished. There are quotable sentences, some of them good and smart, some slightly cliche, but we know how cliches are actually just truth plainly stated. I did like the narrative voice - Nan is a good story teller. Offering bit of the future early and thoughout the novel made me see it a rather sad novel, but not so as to stop me from reading and enjoying the novel.
Although I learned through my Wikipedia search (just call me scholar!) that most of the characters don't have the names of the real-life people, nor is what happened in the novel true for the most part, there is the lingering question of "what if...?" I like stories that exploit the mystery, no matter how far-fetched it seems. From a story point of view, it's a good story, starting from little bits known for sure, and spinning a tale. I got to learn more about Ireland*, about young women taken to nunneries to have their illicit babies, all thanks to Nan's story. As I read an advanced copy of the novel, there wasn't any note from the author saying how she came to write this particular story, about this particular happening in history. I do hope in the final version some explanation is included, as it'd be very interesting for history and historical fiction lovers.
Now I really want to read Agatha Christie's Autobiography, in which, by the way, she says nothing about her 11-days disappearance. So intriguing!
* Fun fact: A few days ago I finished The Missing Sister and the plot is heavily set in Ireland during the Independence War with England. It was cool to learn more about it.
I received a free ebook copy of the novel from the publisher via Net Galley. All thoughts expressed here are my own.
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