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Average Customer Rating:

Talky but full of information, and compassionate

Customer Rating:

Gwen Robyns probably feels, as I do, that Agatha Christie was a genius mind and a sensitive, passionate soul. She is probably a devout reader who relishes each book. Her text sometimes reminds me of things that star-struck visitors in Hollywood might say, but on the whole, she got the facts right. The book needs an edit to clean out some of the extraneous clutter and inefficient diction, but it will take an experienced editor a week or less to do that. What Robyns brings to the table here is compassion for Christie, which comes to feature prominently in the "mysterious" aspects of her life: some unusual choices, some hardships, a friendly yet introverted disposition, and of course, her amnesiac disappearance. To me, Robyns shines when she brings the reader into Christie's mindset when she is suddenly confronted with an unexpected failure of her marriage, in the midst of a complex life, and has what amounts to a mental breakdown. What such a disaster must have done to a sensitive soul, one a thousand times more perceptive than those of us normal people, must be like the effect of screaming at a dog with hearing a thousand times more refined than our own - shock, pain, horror and mental collapse. Robyns made me feel for Ms. Christie's pain and as a result, I was not disposed to judge, only to feel, and thus to gain a greater insight into the character of this famous mystery writer. That is the triumph of this book, and I'd recommend it to any fan of Agatha Christie's work.