Christie, in her own way, is as arrogant as her husband. Archie is one of those entitled, upper-crust British military men who prides himself on not understanding the minds of women, children or even small dogs. Indeed, at one point the story becomes a Christie-esque murder mystery: Who has poisoned that jolly newlywed couple in the hotel where Nan has chosen to hide out, and why?įew of the characters are particularly likable in The Christie Affair, but all are fascinating. Christie never discussed what she’d been up to those 11 days, not even with her own daughter, and this creates a lacuna for a novelist to fill up with some outlandish stuff. Tying Nan’s anguish with Christie’s disappearance is part of the book’s allure, but even a reader superficially familiar with the famous author’s biography can see that de Gramont’s novel is heavily fictionalized.

Nan’s baby daughter was taken from her, and her goal ever since has been to find her child, or get revenge, or both. As for Nan, her life was blighted after being banished to a hellish Irish convent for “fallen” women when she became pregnant at 19. In de Gramont’s telling, Christie’s leaving is prompted almost as much by her despair over her mother’s death as it is by her fury at her husband’s cheating. But in the end, the story isn’t really about either of these affairs it’s about motherhood.Ī long list of authors has imagined what really went on when Christie left her husband and young daughter for 11 days in December 1926. The first is Agatha Christie’s notorious disappearance in 1926, and the second is the affair her husband, Archie, is carrying on with Nan O’Dea (the real mistress’s name was Nancy Neele), the suspiciously omniscient narrator. The title of Nina de Gramont’s second novel for adults, The Christie Affair, has a double meaning.

Reviews of the christie affair