CHRISTIE AFFAIR

Waterstones say: "Taking Agatha Christie's 11 day disappearance in 1926 as a jumping-off point, de Gramont's deftly constructed mystery is a delight for fans of both the Queen of Crime and Golden Age whodunits in general." Agatha Christie's world is one of glamorous society parties, country house weekends, and growing literary fame. Nan O'Dea's world is something very different. Her attempts to escape a tough London upbringing during the Great War led to a life in Ireland. In 1925, Miss Nan O'Dea infiltrated the wealthy, rarefied world of author Agatha Christie and her husband, Archie. In every way, she became a part of their life - first, both Christies. Then, just Archie. Soon, Nan became Archie's mistress, luring him away from his devoted wife, desperate to marry him. Nan's plot didn't begin the day she met Archie and Agatha. Why would the world's most famous mystery writer disappear for eleven days? What makes a woman desperate enough to destroy another woman's marriage? How deeply can a person crave revenge? It began decades before, in Ireland, when Nan was a young girl. She and the man she loved were a star-crossed couple who were destined to be together, until the Great War, a pandemic, and shameful secrets tore them apart. Then acts of unspeakable cruelty kept them separated. What drives someone to murder? What will someone do in the name of love? What kind of crime can someone never forgive? Nina de Gramont's beautifully written imaginative history of Agatha Christie's disappearance plays out alongside a parallel murder mystery that could have flowed straight from the pen of the great AC herself. 320 pages.