A Talent for Murder

April 3, 2017
In December 1926, mystery writer Agatha Christie’s disappearance from her Berkshire home led to a massive search and speculation that she had taken her own life after discovering that her husband, Archie, was having an affair. She surfaced at a Yorkshire hotel 11 days later. Wilson (The Lying Tongue) effectively imagines a different scenario in this twisty thriller. At a London Underground station, Christie, who’s been under a lot of strain, collapses on the platform. A doctor, Patrick Kurs, comes to her assistance. Kurs, who seems to know a lot about Christie’s personal life, persuades her to join him for a cup of tea at a nearby café, where he demands that she murder his wife at a time when he, the obvious suspect, would have an alibi. In exchange, he promises to stay quiet about Archie’s infidelity. Afraid that the publicizing of her husband’s affair will devastate her seven-year-old daughter, Christie agrees to cooperate and vanish, even as she schemes to find a way out of her desperate bind. Wilson fully realizes the potential of this ominous setup. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Associates.

May 15, 2017
Bestselling mystery writer Agatha Christie's real-life 1926 disappearance is reimagined as fiction by biographer Wilson (Alexander McQueen, 2015, etc.).The known facts are here, including Christie's unfaithful husband, Archie, and the fight they had about his affair with Nancy Neele on the night the writer's car was later found abandoned in Surrey. But in Wilson's telling, Christie is accosted in the London Underground by the sociopathic Dr. Kurs, who demands that she kill his wife for him. Why would she do that? Well, Kurs has obtained compromising letters from Archie to Nancy, and he also threatens unspeakable harm to Christie's 7-year-old daughter. As always with such premises, the only answer to the question "why doesn't she go to the police?" is that there would be no book if she did. Christie follows Kurs' orders to disappear and check into a hotel in Harrogate, at which point the narrative splinters into three parts. The only one with any plausibility, albeit little interest, concerns an aging, alcoholic chief constable who is convinced Christie was murdered by her husband. The increasingly baroque developments as Christie cooks up a plot to fool Kurs with the help of his (understandably aggrieved) wife are matched by the ridiculous shenanigans of Una Crowe, a society girl at loose ends who decides to investigate Christie's disappearance and sell the results to a newspaper. No one's motivations make any sense, least of all those of Christie, who whipsaws between quivering terror of Kurs and resourceful plotting to stymie him. The framing device pretends that a man named John Davison wrote this account of the real story behind Christie's disappearance, which he used to recruit her to work for his shadowy secret branch of the British civil service. That's as believable as anything else in this silly tale--which is to say, hardly at all. Not worth bothering with, even for die-hard fans of Dame Agatha.

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July 1, 2017

Just before Christmas 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days. Upon reappearing, she refused to disclose where she was or what happened, citing amnesia. Wilson's (The Lying Tongue) new novel reinterprets these mysterious events. Agatha's husband, Colonel Christie, has been having an affair and wants a divorce, her mother has recently passed away, and the crime novelist has lost her inspiration to write. Depressed and vulnerable, Agatha is approached by Dr. Kurs and blackmailed into an insidious scheme. Soon the young author's disappearance is making headlines and her picture is in the papers. But does her ability to pen detective fiction provide her with enough experience to get away with murder? Wilson's "what if" story is equal parts psychological thriller, detective fiction, and mystery. Readers will become emotionally involved with the protagonist, whom Wilson portrays as both sympathetic and quick witted, even at her lowest points. VERDICT Those who enjoy fiction and detective fiction (including Dame Agatha's own writings) will delight in this singular take on a strange event in Christie's life.--Jennifer Funk, McKendree Univ. Lib., Lebanon, IL

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