The Christie Affair

The nameless narrator reminisces about a time she almost killed someone and how it felt in the moment. She speaks of her relationship with Agatha Christie and her regrets about her previous actions.

Nan O’Dea and Archie Christie are in Archie’s office talking about his decision to leave his wife. Nan pretends to protest, citing Agatha’s recent bereavement over her mother. Agatha enters the office and invites Archie to lunch; he declines, so she invites Nan instead. The two women leave and sit down to lunch together, talking about the war and a man Nan lost. When asked if her man was killed, she responds that he “never came home” (11). As they exit the restaurant, Agatha confronts Nan and asks her to leave her husband alone.

Nan returns to Archie’s office, giving him a book for his daughter Teddy. They part ways with Archie promising to sever the tie between him and his wife.

Archie recounts his evening with Agatha: they ate dinner in near-silence in their home Styles, then Archie read Nan’s gift to his daughter until Agatha was asleep. Nan considers an alternative: that the book was never opened, and Archie and Agatha reconnected in a night of passion and nostalgic love.