I know Doctor Who did it…but that’s Doctor frigging Who. I did like the twist at the end, but it just felt too hammy to have a murder in a novel about a murder mystery novelist that existed in real-life. Then, of course, there is the weird murder that’s kind of shoe-horned in. I would have preferred to hear Christie tell her story from her own perspective rather than have Nan whisper in our ear about the machinations of the writer’s mind. I can’t give too much away without delving into spoiler territory, but it just makes the world feel too insular. Secondly, I don’t particularly like the explanation of what Christie was doing during her disappearance. The writer doesn’t make Nan out to be a morally good character necessarily, but she isn’t supposed to be portrayed as a psycho.
However-no spoilers-this is obviously not the writer’s intention. If Nan is supposed to be a psychopathic character who thinks she knows everything because she’s better and smarter than everyone else, this choice would make a lot of sense. The author tries to obfuscate this by saying Nan is able to piece together a narrative based on second-hand knowledge but… where the hell does she get this knowledge? How did she know what Agatha is thinking while she is driving her car away from Styles? How did she know what the police officer thought about his experience in World War I? It’s such a bizarre choice when Gramont could have easily told the story through a third person perspective from multiple viewpoints.īy having Nan tell us what everyone else is doing and thinking it makes her sound like an arrogant bitch.
Gramont is a competent writer and is able to capture a mood efficiently.įor starters, I do not understand the choice to go with a first-person perspective when so much of the novel consists of telling what other people are experiencing. On the one hand, I can’t say I regret the experience of reading it. It has been an incredibly long time since I have felt this conflicted about a book. 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 brilliant, unforgettable novel explores these questions and more. Then acts of unspeakable cruelty kept them separated.
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. It began decades before, in Ireland, when Nan was a young girl. Nan’s plot didn’t begin the day she met Archie and Agatha. Soon, Nan became Archie’s mistress, luring him away from his devoted wife, desperate to marry him. In every way, she became a part of their life––first, both Christies. In 1925, Miss Nan O’Dea infiltrated the wealthy, rarefied world of author Agatha Christie and her husband, Archie.
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