Flashbacks flesh out the backstory of O'Dea, who at 19 was sent to a convent by the head of the family she was working for in Ireland after getting pregnant by his son. A day later, the world-famous mystery author vanishes, and her abandoned car is found near a body of water notorious for corpses being found in it, leading some to suspect the writer killed herself. Agatha, however, is taken aback by her husband's declaration that he is both leaving her and seeking a divorce. In December 1926, Archie decides to reveal the affair to his wife, to whom the news comes as no surprise. A gripping opening sentence teases O'Dea's dark side ('A long time ago, in another country, I nearly killed a woman').

Martin's Press Author Notesĭe Gramont (The Last September) offers an intriguing new theory of why Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days in this superior thriller, which places the woman Christie's husband, Archie, was having an affair with at the time-here the fictional Nan O'Dea-at its center. The question is, why? Why destroy another woman's marriage, why hatch a plot years in the making, and why murder? How was Nan O'Dea so intricately tied to those eleven mysterious days that Agatha Christie went missing?Ī 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 centuryĪ Macmillan Audio production from St. London, 1925: In a world of townhomes and tennis matches, socialites and shooting parties, Miss Nan O'Dea became Archie Christie's mistress, luring him away from his devoted and well-known wife, Agatha Christie. The greatest mystery wasn't Agatha Christie's disappearance in those eleven infamous days, it's what she discovered. In retrospect, it's frightening, but I daresay in the moment it feels sweet. It takes over your body so completely, it's like a divine force, grabbing hold of your will, your limbs, your psyche. It's a particular feeling, the urge to murder. 'A long time ago, in another country, I nearly killed a woman. Nina de Gramont's The Christie Affair is a stunning new novel that reimagines the unexplained eleven-day disappearance of Agatha Christie that captivated the world.

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