“Perhaps a woman has a different kind of measuring stick. For when it might be acceptable, or even necessary, to commit a murder.”

After recently discovering my love of Agatha Christie I knew I had to pick this one up because it sounded so interesting to me. This is a historical fiction novel following Ms. Nan O’Dea who I could have read a whole book on without the Agatha Christie part it was so interesting. It was an interesting take on Agatha Christies disappearance with a delightful storyline and so many twists wrapped in I could not put it down. 

In London in 1925 Agatha Christie infamously went missing for eleven days. Her car was found abandoned by the side of the road and all her possessions were left inside. So, what happened? After Nan O’Dea was discovered having an affair with Christie’s husband this novel follows an imaginative journey filled with heartbreak and first love. 

The most interesting part of this novel to me was about Nans past. Her life had so many fascinating parts to it that I wanted more. Finding out about her on purposely inserting herself into Archie Christies life as well as the motivation behind it made the novel seem that much more heart-breaking. When talking about Agatha, Nan paints her in such a light that it seems as though the two could have been friends had the circumstances been different. 

“We both know you can’t tell your own story without exposing someone else’s.” 

Although I really enjoyed this book the one issue that I had is that I went into it expecting to read about Agatha Christie only to learn about Nan O’Dea’s life instead. I understand that this book was supposed to be Nan’s account of what happened however, it would have been interesting to expand more on the disappearance and why Agatha Christie decided all those years ago to just vanish. 

I loved the ending. It felt like a true Agatha Christie novel with all the mysteries on top of mysteries. The drama was all resolved at the end, but it came with a twist that going into the novel I was not expecting. It allowed you to get wrapped up in the story and at times although the various storylines are confusing it is all explained at the end. Gramont did an amazing job of creating that old fashioned murder mystery with a modern view on it. 

Overall, I gave this book four stars just because I would have liked to have seen more about Agatha. However, it was extremely interesting learning about Nan and following her perspective on those eleven days by seeing how she visualised it all. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and it kept me guessing through an entertaining game throughout. 

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy to read and review!