Oline H Cogdill

Agatha Christie never goes out of style.

I have said that several times and may have even used that same sentence.

“The Queen of Mysteries,” as she was often called, continues to entertain readers with her stories about Miss Jane Marple, Hercule Poirot and her other characters. These are still in print, fodder for numerous TV series, films and short story collections; every few years a new biography comes along.

And she’s also given authors ideas for other novels based on Christie, who died in 1976 at age 85.

For example, Lori Rader-Day gave readers a new view of Dame Christie with her intriguing novel Death at Greenway, an original plot that centered on a little-known fact of the author’s life. During WWII, Christie’s Devon estate Greenway housed 10 children whose parents sent them to the countryside to, hopefully, be safe as London was being bombed by the Germans.

The latest in the Christie reboot is The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont (St. Martin’s Press), which comes out in February 2022.

The Christie Affair recounts the 11-day disappearance of Agatha Christie through the perspective of her husband's mistress, Nan O’Dea, a fictionalized version of his real-life lover Nancy Neele.

Set in London during 1925, The Christie Affair revolves around the betrayal that hit the author hard, prompting her disappearance.

The Christie Affair also will be the inspiration for a TV series, as announced by Miramax TV. British writer Juliette Towhidi (Calendar Girls, Death Comes to Pemberley) is set to write the adaptation.

The television series doesn't have a premiere date yet.

In a story about the TV series, Deadline.com posted “Agatha and Nan transform from competitors to unlikely allies while the world around them remains cloaked in the dark, unable to grasp the complexities of each woman’s relationship to her past and her female identity. Set mostly in the beautiful and historic British spa town of Harrogate, The Christie Affair is part sweeping love story– but not the one you expect — part exploration of the bonds of womanhood and part murder mystery to rival one of Christie’s own, now very famous stories.”

Whenever it airs, the TV series has to be better than the abysmal 1979 movie Agatha directed by Michael Apted. The movie starred Vanessa Redgrave as Christie with Timothy Dalton as her husband Archie.

I still remember how this film made Dame Christie seem boring.

The film Christie began with Agatha Christie giving an engraved silver cup for her husband Archie, who was unappreciative. According to several reviews that recap the plot, the couple walk to a publicity event for her new novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. On the scene is an American reporter Wally Stanton (Dustin Hoffman). The next morning, Archie demands a divorce, saying he loves his secretary.

That night, Christie gets into an automobile accident.

The police discover her wrecked car, prompting press coverage. It’s learned that Christie left a letter for her secretary, prompting speculation of suicide.

Stanton follows a lead that takes him to a hotel in Harrogate where the author is checking in.

From there, the film just goes down hill.

But I have high hopes for the TV series based on The Christie Affair, as well as the novel that sounds terrific.





the-disappearance-of-agatha-christie
7351