“I wouldn’t scream if I were you. Unless you want the whole world to learn about your husband and his mistress.”
Agatha Christie, in London to visit her literary agent, is boarding a train, preoccupied with the devastating knowledge that her husband is having an affair. She feels a light touch on her back, causing her to lose her balance, then a sense of someone pulling her to safety from the rush of the incoming train. So begins a terrifying sequence of events—for her rescuer is no guardian angel, rather he is a blackmailer of the most insidious, manipulative kind.
“You, Mrs. Christie, are going to commit a murder. But, before then, you are going to disappear.”
Writing about murder is a far cry from committing a crime, and Agatha must use every ounce of her cleverness and resourcefulness to thwart an adversary determined to exploit her expertise and knowledge about the act of murder to kill on his behalf.
Burb taken from Goodreads.
✼
I was given this book as a gift, and I was immediately excited by the concept. Agatha Christie famously disappeared for several days, with nobody knowing exactly what happened to her. I love Christie's work, and as this book promised to propose a fictional theory, I was so looking forward to getting my teeth into it.
I just found the whole thing terribly dull, and it took me so long to trawl through it. I almost didn't make it, which says something. It was all just very fine. And that's such a shame, because the idea had so much potential.
Rating: ✫✫
SPOILER ALERT
The Story
Right. Where do I start? The plot was actually a sound idea. You've got somebody who wants to take advantage of Christie's knowledge, and force her to commit a murder, providing her with incentive not to report the situation to the police. Nice. I can get on board with that. This could have been so exciting.
Sadly, it fell flat in every way. On the one hand, you've got Kurs bossing Christie about, without any real establishment of why. He wants to be rid of his wife, sure, but why? I don't really think there's enough background there to justify why he's keen to pursue murder. You've then got Christie, responding to his demands by whining and not really doing anything about it. She just wanders around getting sad (and there are an unbearable amount of scenes where she's doing exactly that and nothing else). On another hand, we also have Una running round trying to find out exactly what's happened. I just wanted to stop her and tell her not to bother, because the story wasn't really interesting enough to justify so much of her time.
I think the thing that bothered me the most, though, was that this story completely destroyed the image of Agatha Christie that I had in my mind. She's supposed to the Queen of Crime, bossing it on a daily basis. Yet this story painted her, essentially, as a bit pathetic. Of course, it isn't a nice situation for Kurs to put her in, but she really doesn't help matters by being so spineless. Especially as, for half of the book, we're led to believe that Kurs is threatening Christie with the idea that he could ruin her image by revealing her husband's affair to the press. Which, for me, isn't really a good enough reason to allow yourself to be manipulated. Would I commit murder to keep my husband's affair from the newspapers? Um, absolutely not. Halfway through, I realise, we've switched from that original motive to the need to keep her daughter safe. I can't recall when that particular plot point changed, but it was no doubt while my eyes were glazed over and I was attempting to keep myself awake. Admittedly, keeping your daughter safe seems a far more understandable reason to stay on Kurs' good side than protecting your cheating husband's image, but the main motive changed apparently randomly, and with no explanation. More consistency would have been helpful.
About 300 pages in, when I had almost given up, the pace of the plot started to pick up a little! Don't get me wrong, it wasn't going to salvage it, but it became slightly less dull to read when Flora came into the equation. She wanted to help by risking her own life to protect Christie and her daughter.
Um. Why? Why on earth would you agree to help someone so easily who's just admitted to being literally about to murder you? It just makes no sense. Flora's character should never have been so sympathetic so quickly, and, while we're on the subject, Christie immediately caved and told her everything. It was just random, and there was absolutely no suspense. That scene became dull again not moments after it had showed some promise. There was no argument; no heightened tension. Just a chat as if Christie had showed up simply to water Flora's plants. Furthermore, why was Flora so prepared to sacrifice herself at the very end? Not a moment's hesitation or thought as to how her death could be avoided. So she dies, along with her husband, just like that. Unnecessarily. I understand the book was based on the few facts that there were about Christie's disappearance, but it all felt a little thin on the ground plot-wise.
I mean, what the hell is up with the poor decisions these characters continued to make?
The Verdict
It was all just sooooooo slow! I spent almost the entire thing waiting for the pace to pick up, and it never really did. Considering the potential this story had, it was unbelievably underwhelming and disappointing.
It also feels a little bit like this book was written by somebody who doesn't really fully understand humanity; human emotions, and the natural human responses to events. It was all so matter of fact and that made it difficult to read. It was all so static, and boring. Not to mention that the characters were unbelievably annoying.
The story was fine. The writing was fine. It was all just fine. Not exactly what I look for when I pick up a book, sadly.
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