A Talent for Murder
A Novel
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Discover the real-life mystery surrounding the queen of crime herself: Agatha Christie. In this “audacious mystery…with thrilling results” (The Guardian), Andrew Wilson investigates Christie’s unexplained ten-day disappearance and offers his own gripping explanation, in which Christie is pulled into a riveting case of blackmail and murder.
“I wouldn’t scream if I were you. Unless you want the whole world to learn about your husband and his mistress.”
Agatha Christie is preparing to board 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 of the act of murder to kill on his behalf.
In this tantalizing novel Andrew Wilson ingeniously explores Agatha Christie’s odd ten-day disappearance in 1926 and weaves an utterly compelling and convincing story around this still unsolved mystery involving the world’s bestselling novelist.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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 caf , 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.
