by Lindsay Jayne Ashford
I read a previous book by this author, about the death of Jane Austen. As I read my review of this book it seems I thought it was okay but wasn't really gushy about it.
This book is about Agatha Christie. The book starts with a young man arriving at an aged Christie's home with a couple photos. He wants to know who the people in the photo are. He knows one of the women is Christie.
Then the book moves to the past. Agatha wants to get away from England as her ex-husband is to be remarried. After the scandal after she disappeared for a period at a hotel in England she decides to travel under a false name.
On the train she meets two women Nancy and Katherine, both of whom also have secrets. Nancy is a married woman, from a wealthy family. She was devastated to find her husband in bed with another woman, on their honeymoon. In her despair about this she is comforted by a married man and gets into a relationshipo with him. She is now pregnant with his child. She hopes he will leave his family and join her in Baghdad. Katherine is working on an archeological dig, partly as an artist. Her first husband committed suicide in Egypt and she has been told she cannot continue to work on the dig as a single woman so she is returning to get married to the leader of the dig. She has told her second husband that she will marry him on the condition that they not have sex. He agreed. She does not want to tell him the reason why... while she looks like a woman she actually has male sex organs rather than female organs. This was discovered after she got married. She found sex very painful and upon medical investigation the problem was unearthed.
Agatha stops Katherine from committing suicide, then Katherine falls ill and Nancy and Agatha nurse her. Katherine invites them to come visit the dig. Kather has figured out who Jane really is (she was reading one of Christie's books and noticed the resemblance to the photo on the book. She doesn't confront her for quite a while.
Nancy had planned to live with a relative, who was working for the British Embassy, in Baghdad. She is distraught when she receives a telegram saying her relative has died. Nancy doesn't have much money so Christie offers to hire her to type up her notes as long as she is in Baghdad.
When Agatha and Nancy go to visit the dig Nancy gives birth to a baby boy. An official at the British Embassy told her husband where she was and he shows up to claim the child. He is murdered by a Bedoin when he attacks Katherine who is trying to take the child to the Bedouins to ask them to hide the child. When is body is discovered in the desert it is assumed he got lost and succumbed in a storm. Decomposition of his body is so severe there is no evidence he was shot. The one weak point in this story is that Nancy's husband arrived so quickly. He seems to show up only a few days after the Official visited the dig. I know there were telegrams at that time but it would still take some time for the husband to travel from England. It took the women several days and a five day drive to get to Baghdad.
Katherine, upon urging from Agatha eventually tells her second husband why she can't have sex. She fears what is reaction will be but his response is that he just wants to be loved. When Nancy dies of a childbirth fever Katherine and her husband adopt the boy. As all this is happening, Agatha is developing a relationship with one of the other dig staff, a man who eventually will be come her second husband.
At the end of the book Agatha agrees to tell her young visitor, Nancy's son, the truth. He wants to know who is father is.... it is implied that the young man's father is likely Agatha's first husband. It seems that he was having an affair with Nancy, while he was wooing and preparing to marry another woman.
I found the book very engaging. I enjoyed it much more than the first book I read by this author.
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