This novel is so much more than the mystery one might expect. Yes, it deals fictionally with the well-known disappearance of the famous mystery author, Agatha Christie, on the eve of her divorce from her adulterous husband. But beyond that, it’s an examination of women’s lives in England and Ireland in the 1920s. Intertwined with the hunt for Agatha is one path her husband’s mistress might have followed to grow from an innocent teen writing to her soldier boyfriend, through the Influenza that decimated the world’s population in the aftermath of World War I, to become a young woman who coldly, calculatingly, sets her cap at a married man with the intent of replacing his wife.
While some aspects of this book resemble the 1979 movie (with Vanessa Redgrave gravely and gracefully convincing as a very distressed Agatha), this story is more layered, as much character driven as plot oriented. The narrator rings true all the way through. The side characters littered throughout are fascinating, as many layers to their lives as the main characters, although we are only permitted glimpses into those hidden depths. The unraveling of a side mystery is a bit rushed, but we didn’t care about those people anyway, being spellbound by the complex interplay between Agatha’s story and Nan’s.
The book is also a socio-psychological study into Irish Catholic culture at the time: elements that are well known to all of us now, about convents, unwed mothers, and the cruelty of nuns; the secret lusts of priests; the Magdalene laundries where any girl thought to be immoral or uncontrollable could be sent to slave for the rest of her life. In its way this book is a rage against the patriarchy of a bygone era. It is also a love story and a family saga, a step outside of time, and a mystery novel with a murder and other crimes at its heart.
Highly recommended.
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