AGATHA

by Kathleen Tynan

First Edition - Stated. Slight edge wear. Plastic protective cover to DJ. Original price of $7.95 is intact. Pages are clean and binding is tight. Solid Book.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Agatha Christie, Historical Fiction

247 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1978

Reviews

[Susy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars
An easy, fictional read about the 11 days Agatha Christie went missing. I hadn’t even heard about her disappearance before this book.... I must say I quite enjoyed it. People say it cannot be compared to Christie’s own writing and storylines and therefore give it a low rating. But why would you want to compare? Tynan wrote ABOUT Agatha, she wasn’t trying to impersonate her, duplicate her storytelling or anything like that. It may not be a great story but it’s not that bad either. So 3 stars.

[Ashley Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Agatha by Kathleen Tynan was a charming mystery novel set in the style of Agatha Christie's own writing, but the events surround her mysterious disappearance in the 1920s.
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This book has earned a 5/10 from me because while the story was interesting, the writing style did not keep me as engaged and made it difficult for me to read. I am an avid Agatha Christie fan and appreciate the author's attempt at replicating her style for a story that surrounds the famous author, but it did not quite live up to my expectations and experiences reading Christie novels. I think this book would be well adapted for a screen play (so if someone is interested in that and is looking for a director, let me know!) because the story itself is really well-done, but the style fell flat.

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fictionalised account of Agatha Christie’s disappearance. The set up was enjoyable enough, but it never went anywhere. I can’t imagine that it could have been published during her lifetime as there were some very unpleasant speculations.

Such a missed opportunity for a juicy mystery in they style of a Christie novel.

A huge annoyance for me was that it gave away the murderer in one of her books (one of my favourites too!)

Avoid. I’ve only given 2 stars for the opening chapters and that it is at a push!

[Margaret McCamant · Rating 2 out of 5]

I saw a documentary about Agatha Christie that also speculated about her strange disappearance and it was interesting to read a novelist's ideas. As with Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell, that we discussed in the Fortnightly book group this morning, there are lots of pitfalls to avoid when one attempts a fictional ending to a real event. This book belonged to one of my parents and I claimed it when my mother died in 2016. My father was the main reader of Agatha Christie (owned a complete set), so maybe it was his. It's not compelling, but it is an easy read, so I'll finish it.

[Lynda Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grabbed this book quickly for holiday reading at the wonderful Chertsy Book Barn just outside of Ashburton, NZ. It's ALWAYS a fabulous place to pick up quality second-hand books AND has a resident cat that will follow you to the toilet. Not looking at it properly, I had assumed that it would be non-fiction, but it was a novel. Luckily, this did not detract from the book at all. I found myself completely engrossed in it, finding it hard to differentiate where fact stopped and fiction began. It has prompted me to look further at what actually happened when Christie disappeared.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

My edition is entitled "The Agatha Christie Mystery"published by W.H. Allen. I assume it is the same book. I found it very interesting and remember seeing a good film, starring Vanessa Redgrave in the role of the missing writer. I wasn't too keen on reading about the electrical currents used to treat people at the Royal Baths in Harrogate but otherwise the book held my interest and was well-written.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed imagining Agatha Christie as a real person, though I didn't really enjoy this book. It was well-written and constructed but the Agatha Tynan envisioned is not the Agatha I would want to know. So it's really not a fault of the book, persay, but of my preconceived notions about who Agatha Christie must be.

[Kirsten Simkiss · Rating 1 out of 5]

Life’s too short for bad books. I got about forty pages in and quit. Maybe it’s because it’s a novelization of a movie or maybe it’s just because the characterizations are thin and shoddy, but I just did not enjoy what I read of the book. It might pick up later, but what I read really was nothing spectacular.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

A must NOT read for Christie fans. Boring, poor writing, nothing like a good Christie mystery. If I could give it negative stars I would. Barely finished it.

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! A real-life mystery in Agatha Christie’s life, never solved. She never explained it. The book used factual accounts mixed with imagined solution.

[Gary Kent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acceptable story reasonably told.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Novel based on Agatha Christie's disappearance. Quite entertaining.

[slattman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stupid book lol. I bought it for $1.13 at half price books and I feel like it was wasted

[Sherri Rabinowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second time I read this book. I bought it in the 70's when it first came out, in fact my paperback is a first edition. My curiosity at the time was huge about the author's idea about what happened to my favorite mystery writer when she disappeared.

The ideas of the author all fits the actual evidence that is known about Agatha Christie's disappearance. The rest of course is the authors imagination. The book is far better then the movie. I have read a lot about Agatha Christie and there are two parts of it that I disagree with that seems to be out of her character. I won't give it away since I do think the book well worth reading.

I love the characters of Wally Stanton and Evelyn Crawley, I think they are actually my favorite part of the novel. She succeeded in making Archie Christie the villain of the piece. I am not sure he was a villain he was more of a product of his time and upbringing. Agatha was a lot like her father in both emotion and out look. I think that opposites attracted but it didn't last because Archie had so little imagination and Agatha had so much.

It is well worth the read, a fun mystery.

[Eva · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5
I enjoyed reading it, but there were some things that could have been better. I felt like Agatha was portrayed differently than I'd ever imagined her, and the characters and story were a bit dull. Still, the mystery was good, and this was based on a true event in Agatha Christie's life. The writing was good, and there was nothing inherently wrong with the plot, it was simply a little slow and underdeveloped. I missed the regular "Agatha" pacing and sense of adventure, and the air of mystery around her characters. It didn't feel like it was based on a true story. It felt like the author took something that may have happened and tried to copy Christie's mystery-style. Like I said before, it wasn't a completely terrible book or anything, but I can't really remember what happened after reading it. It just didn't stick with me.

[Kelley]

Agatha is a factionalized account of what happened during the 11-day disappearance of famed mystery novelist, Agatha Christie, in 1926. It spawned a national sensation in the UK at the time she disappeared. Kathleen Tynan wrote an interesting novel in this account. Her writing style actually reminded me of the great Christie herself. Interestingly, Christie never spoke about this disappearance and never offered explanation. Did Christie disappear on purpose? Did she have amnesia or a psychotic break? Tynan cleverly keeps us wondering in her own explanation in this novel.

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

What exactly did happen when Agatha Christie went missing in December 1926? Will we ever know the absolute truth?

Kathleen Tynan puts her own imaginative interpretation on the affair in a hightly entertaining and thought-provoking novel.

If readers have seen the film of the affair, the book will have some similarities particularly where Wally Stanton (Dustin Hoffman in the film) is concerned.

An intriguing tale well told that keeps the reader interested, and on edge, to the very end.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the cover of this book, it reads "as ingenious and passionate a crime as Agatha Christie might have plotted..."

So not true. Kathleen Tynan cannot even approach the genious of Agatha Christie. The writing isn't that good, the plot is a little meandering, and there NO CRIME.

I thought this would be more Christie-esque. I was mistaken.

[Lauren Cox · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you try to remove Agatha Christie and her significance from the story, it’s a somewhat interesting idea of how and why someone might want to stage their own vanishing. However, remembering it is a fiction based on speculation surrounding someone real and their private life feels quite distasteful and uncomfortable.

[Faye · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was poorly written and I didn't enjoy it. In fact, I picked it up because it was about Agatha Christie. The story seemed rather strange and the writing was, as I mentioned before, rather bad.

Don't waste your time unless you have nothing better to read and a long bus ride.

[Jacqueline Ellis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bought this because I ran out of books to read on holiday,struggled to finish it! There's no depth to any of the characters and I was left with no real interest as to the events and outcome. Very disappointing!!

[Rena Searles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining theory about the real-life disappearance of Agatha Christie.

[kami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agatha Christie's disappearance.

A Star Book
Published 1978

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining.