Rating: ⭐⭐✨⬜⬜
Title: The Christie Affair
Author: Nina de Gramont
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: London, England
Month Read: February 2022
Book Type: Hardcover
Publication: 2022
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 311
*Book of the Month Selection
TRIGGER WARNING-
Abuse / Infidelity / Murder / Kidnapping / Trauma / Religious Abuse / Rape
"Perhaps a woman has a different kind of measuring stick. For when it might be acceptable, or even necessary, to commit a murder."
No Spoiler Summary:
The Christie Affair is a fiction take on Agatha Christie's mysterious 11 day disappearance told in the POV's of Agatha, and her husband's mistress, Nan. You follow both women through the days before, during, and slightly after the disappearance takes place. You also follow Nan through her past, filled with trauma, treachery, and abuse.
Review:
I'm not quite sure how I felt about this novel, and I think the completely fabricated storylines sort of lost me a bit more than I thought they would. For fans of Agatha, I think this misses the mark quite a bit on being a good mystery novel, and Nan's stakes in this seem incredibly far fetched (and a little forced.)
Nan's past was an incredibly hard part of this book to get through, for me, and I could have probably just read an entire book about this and enjoyed it a lot more. The Irish Catholic religion and the harm they did to unmarried women is disgusting, and as a newer Mom this sent me into rages. I cannot imagine what all of these women went through, and it just hurts so much to know that religion, and those who upheld it, caused people so much pain.
I wish we got to know Archie more, besides just being the man in the center of these two women.I feel like he was really underdeveloped and one sided, and I left the novel unsure why anyone even wanted him in the firs place.
Recommendation:
Any of Agatha Christie's books!
I particularly enjoyed And Then There Were None
"As if the sheer force of her anguish had made her, inexplicably, the most important person on earth"
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