Review of "The Christie Affair: A Novel" by Nina de Gramont

 

Agatha Christie

Every mystery book lover knows Agatha Christie, the best-selling English author who crafted ingenious plots for her many whodunits. Christie had a mystery in her own life as well.

The facts are as follows: In December, 1926 Agatha's husband Archie Christie announced he was divorcing Agatha to marry his mistress. The next day Agatha vanished, and her car - containing a suitcase with her clothes - was found perched above a chalk quarry.

There was a hue and cry throughout England, and a massive police search for the missing writer. Eleven days later Agatha was found in a hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire, claiming she couldn't remember what happened.....and Agatha stuck to that story for the rest of her life

In this book, author Nina de Gramont fashions a fictional tale about Agatha's disappearance.

*****

The story is narrated by Nan O'Dea, the 'other woman' in Archie Christie's life.

Agatha Christie's husband of twelve years, Archie Christie, is besotted with Nan O'Dea - with whom he's been having an affair for a couple of years.



In December 1926 Archie tells Agatha he wants a divorce, as he's determined to marry Nan. Upper class British women like Agatha are expected to keep a stiff upper lip, but Agatha is devastated. The next day Agatha vanishes, leaving the Christie's school age daughter Teddy in the care of her nanny.


Agatha Christie when she was a young woman


Agatha Christie with her little daughter

Agatha is already a famous writer, and her disappearance reverberates throughout Great Britain. Police around the country are put on alert, and Agatha's picture is in newspapers everywhere. Many people, including Archie, fear that Agatha is dead, perhaps having taken her own life.


The police use dogs to hunt for Agatha Christie, fearing she might be dead

Nan is fully aware of the pain she's caused Agatha, with whom she's well acquainted. Nan and the Christies travel in some of the same social circles, and Nan has been a guest in the Christies' home. Nevertheless Nan purposely set out to wrest Archie away from Agatha, for reasons of her own.



Much of the book is Nan's backstory, which is rather tragic. Nan was raised in a working class family in England, and spent many summers with relatives in Ireland, working on their farm. As a girl, Nan lost a beloved older sister and fell in love with an Irish boy called Finbarr, who went off to fight in World War I.



Finbarr survived the fighting but came down with the terrible Spanish Flu, and - for various reasons - this was dreadful for Nan. Nan uses this history to justify breaking up the Christies' marriage.

In any case, Nan makes herself scarce when Agatha disappears, since Archie doesn't want Nan drawn into a public scandal. So Nan checks into a classy hotel/spa in Harrogate.



As luck would have it, a husband and wife in the resort die under suspicious circumstances while Nan is in residence. A policeman named Chilton, who's in the area searching for Agatha Christie, is assigned to investigate the deaths of the couple, which at first glance looks like a murder-suicide.



Meanwhile, Agatha also happens to be in the vicinity of Harrogate, having an adventure of her own.



Agatha tries to stay under the radar, but some people think she looks a lot like that writer whose photo is in the newspaper. 😃 After eleven days Agatha is found, none the worse for wear except she has 'amnesia' about her disappearance. To say more would be a spoiler.



In some ways the plot mimics a REAL Agatha Christie story, with plenty of surprises and twists, and an unexpected murderer revealed at the climax.

I enjoyed the story but didn't like most of the main characters - including Agatha, Archie, and Nan - who are self-serving and badly behaved. I do applaud the book for addressing problems faced by women of the time, many of whom had little control over their own lives.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Lucy Scott, who does a fine job.

Thanks to Netgalley, Nina de Gramont, and Macmillan Audio for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "The Wild Bunch: Gods, Guns & Gangs" by John H. Sibley

Author John Sibley lives on the Southside of Chicago, where the Black Disciples street gang was formed in 1958, in response to other violent gangs in the area.

Black Disciples street gang

Lawlessness is still common in Chicago's west and south sides, as evidenced by the constant crackle of gunfire at night, and the shootings that take the lives of both adults and children.


Family members of a shooting victim console each other outside Chicago's Stroger hospital


Police investigate the scene of a shooting in Chicago on July 4, 2020

Gang violence in America is not limited to rough neighborhoods, however. This is demonstrated by the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to overturn Joe Biden's election.




Insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021

Sibley notes that The Black Disciples worship Satan while the January 6 insurrectionists are radical Christian Nationalists, as shown by their banners, flags, crosses, signs, t-shirts, and prayers. On both sides, the militant groups take inspiration from their view of God.


The insurrectionists are radical Christian Nationalists

Is violence an intrinsic characteristic of human beings? The author suggests that it well may be, as seen in brutal films like Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969), Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), and James Samuel's The Harder They Fall (2021).




Scenes from The Wild Bunch




Scenes from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood




Scenes from The Harder They Fall

For macho viewers, these motion pictures hark back to "the good old days" when "men were men." Movies like these make Sibley think of Dylann Roof killing black churchgoers and the deaths of Michael Brown and George Floyd - the kinds of crimes that are currently tearing the country apart.


Dylann Roof shot nine members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina

Sibley was particularly struck by Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, which was inspired, in part, by the bloodshed Peckinpah saw when his Marine Corp battalion was stationed in China after WWII. The battles between the Maoists and the Kuomintang, and the devaluation of Chinese life, profoundly affected the future director. The Wild Bunch also reflects the horrors of the Vietnam War and presages civilian use of assault rifles for mass murder. The author observes that the film "shows us the reality of violence as an unholy but unavoidable truth."


Chinese Kuomintang forces fire on Communist Army forces


My Lai Massacre in Vietnam (1968)

Sibley compares Peckinpah - who changed the way we view violence - to artists like Goya and Picasso, musicians like John Coltrane and Miles Davis, and boxer Muhammed Ali, all of whom "touched our humanity with their vision, sound, or word."


Fight With Cudgels by Francisco Goya

Sibley goes on to analyze violence from a spiritual point of view, noting the Elizabethan belief that, when God wants to punish humanity, he chooses the worst people - like scourgers and sinners - to carry out the task. For believers, this could explain the shooters who carried out the mass killings at Columbine High School (1999), Sandy Hook Elementary School (2012), Pulse Night Club (2016), Parkland High School (2018), and other places. The perpetrators, whatever their reasons, are almost always young men, who Sibley views as "the most dangerous people on the planet."


Eric Harris (left) and Dylan Klebold perpetrated a massacre at Columbine High School


Omar Mateen carried out a mass shooting at Pulse Night Club

The author notes that America has a preoccupation with violence that can be found in music, movies, television, and video games. Sibley further posits that this tendency may be rooted in epigenetics - the phenomenon of behavior and environment influencing the way genes are expressed. Sibley suggests the characters in Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch did not have a genetic predisposition for violence, but became brutal because of environmental determinants.


Video games demonstrate America's preoccupation with violence

Violence isn't the only problem facing humanity today. The author cites social theorist Jacques Attali, who believes our future is also jeopardized by climate change; increasing obesity; the use of drugs; scarcity of food, water, and oil; financial crises; damaging technologies; waves of immigrants; the moral bankruptcy of the wealthiest; and other factors.



In Sibley's opinion, climate change in particular should be seen as "a civilization wake-up call." The author thinks we must change everything about our economy to avoid climate disaster, which means reining in the greedy minority and redistributing wealth.

The narrative is insightful and provides much food for thought. Does the human propensity for violence, greed, racism, xenophobia, etc. doom our future? Can we better ourselves? That remains to be seen.

Thanks to John Sibley for a copy of the book.

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "The Darkness Knows: A Detective Konrad Mystery" by Arnaldur Indridason

 

This review was first posted on Mystery and Suspense. Check it out for features, interviews, and reviews. https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/th...


In this first book in the 'Detective Konrad' series, the retired detective looks into a very cold case.

*****

Konrád, a retired police detective in Reykjavík, Iceland has been brooding about a case for 30 years.



Three decades ago an entrepreneur named Sigurvin disappeared, and Detective Konrád was an investigator on the case.



The prime suspect was Sigurvin's former business partner Hjaltalín, who was heard to argue with Sigurvin and threaten his life.



Hjaltalín was detained, but he loudly proclaimed his innocence, and - with no corpse - there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. So Hjaltalín walked free, but his life was blighted by a cloud of suspicion.



Now, 30 years later, Sigurvin's body has been found by tourists hiking on the Langjökull glacier.





The medical examiner determines Sigurvin was killed by blows to the head, the murder case is reopened, and Hjaltalín - now suffering from end-stage throat cancer - is arrested once again. Hjaltalín insists on speaking to retired Detective Konrád, who agrees, thinking Hjaltalín wants to confess and clear his conscience.

Konrád visits Hjaltalín in jail, where the sick man is weak, frail, and confined to his bed. Instead of confessing, Hjaltalín insists he's innocent, and asks Konrád to find the real killer and make him pay.



Since Konrád is retired he has no authority to investigate Sigurvin's death, but the case still haunts him. Moreover, the discovery of Sigurvin's body triggers people's memories, and a woman named Herdis comes to Konrád with a story about her brother Villi.



The tale goes as follows: When Villi was a child, he liked to play around the abandoned water tanks on Öskjuhlíd Hill, in central Reykjavík.



One night, nine-year-old Villi encountered a stranger on Öskjuhlíd, who chased Villi off and threatened to kill him if he spoke about the encounter. Soon afterwards Sigurvin vanished after being seen arguing with a man on Öskjuhlíd. Villi didn't realize he may have seen the killer until many years later, when he watched a true crime documentary about Sigurvin's disappearance.

Afterwards, in 2009, Villi was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Now that Sigurvin's body has been found, Herdis speculates that Villi's death may be connected to Sigurvin's murder, and she asks Konrád to look into it. This gives the retired detective a good excuse to poke around in the Sigurvin case, which he does with the help of friends and contacts in the police department.



This is a cold case police procedural that feels very authentic, with Konrád diligently following clues that lead from place to place and person to person - clues that sometimes provide useful information and sometimes fizzle out.



The book is also a character study of Konrád, who has a thorny past. Konrád was born with a withered arm, to a brutal father who abused his mother. When Konrád's mother had enough and fled with his sister, Konrád's father insisted the boy stay with him. The dad - who was a smuggler, thief, and fraud - made Konrád participate in his illegal activities, and Konrád became a juvenile delinguent who committed crimes, skipped school, and drank. Then Konrád's father was stabbed to death and his murder was never solved.

The homicide spurred Konrad to clean up his act, get an education, and join the police force. Konrád married, had a son, became a grandfather, and was doing well until his wife got terminal cancer and Konrad retired to take care of her. Konrád's story is filled with events from his life, like the time he was bullied at school; his rare visits with his mother; how he met his beloved wife; and more.



The atmosphere and landscape of Iceland make a fine backdrop to this compelling Nordic noir, which is expected to be the debut of a new series from award-winning author Arnaldur Indridason.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus" by Maia Weinstock

Maia Weinstock, an American science writer and the deputy editor at MIT news, tells the remarkable story of the 'Queen of Carbon' Mildred (Millie) Dresselhaus.


Young Millie Dresselhaus


Millie Dresselhaus holding a LEGO figure of herself

During Millie's long career, she uncovered some of carbon's basic properties, paved the way for a future of carbon-based technologies, was a pioneer in research on nanostructures called fullerenes (buckyballs), and predicted the existence of carbon nanotubes - sheets of carbon atoms rolled up into tiny cylinders that can conduct electricity. (Nanotubes are 10,000 times thinner than a human hair.)


Nanotubes are 10,000 times thinner than a human hair.


Buckyballs are similar in diameter to nanotubes

Weinstock writes, "In all, Millie authored or co-authored an astounding 1,700 research articles and 8 books, largely relating to carbon and it's fundamental properties. But she was far more than a brilliant researcher. Millie was also a tireless educator and role model.....whom countless women in science and engineering looked up to." Among myriad other accolades, Millie was the first female MIT Institute Professor, the first woman to win a National Medal of Science in the category of engineering, and the first solo recipient of the prestigious Kavli Prize, given biennially in the disciplines of astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience. Millie also received the National Medal of Science from President George H.W. Bush, served as director of the Department of Energy's Office of Science under President Bill Clinton, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.


Millie Dresselhaus receiving the Kavli Prize from King Harald of Norway

;
Millie Dresselhaus receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama

Moreover, Millie rose to eminence from a childhood that started in extreme poverty, and she had to battle male chauvinists and society's resistance to women scientists along the way.

Millie Spiewak was born in 1930 in Brooklyn and grew up in the Bronx, where her immigrant Jewish parents struggled to make ends meet. Little Millie's first calling was music, and she won a scholarship for violin lessons at the Greenwich House Music School in Manhattan.


Greenwich House Music School

In addition to attending grade school and music school, Millie also had to work, and her first paying job began at the age of eight, when she tutored a special needs student for fifty cents a week for 15 to 20 hours of lessons. Later, Millie became an administrative helper in her junior high school and assisted with manufacturing assembly work her mother brought home to augment the family income. Millie was also employed as a child laborer in a zipper factory during her summers off from school and observed that "she used to hide when inspectors came around because she was under the legal minimum age for workers in New York City."

A perk of attending Greenwich House Music School was free tickets to concerts and theatrical performances, and Millie attended as many as she could. On top of that, young Millie became a film critic for the Greenwich House Music School newsletter, which gave her free access to big-name movies. Weinstock notes, "A bright young Millie blossomed into a veritable sponge, soaking up every experience and opportunity that crossed her path."

Millie's interest in science was stoked by books like Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif - which extolled fourteen men of science, and a biography of the two-time Nobel-prize winning physicist and chemist Marie Curie. Millie also saved up her tiny allowance to purchase old copies of National Geographic magazine, which "further immersed her young mind in scientific and humanistic thinking."


Physicist and Chemist Marie Curie

Only one New York magnet school accepted girls in the 1940s, and Millie managed to earn a place at the highly competitive Hunter College High School.



Millie supplemented her formal education by exploring the city's art and history museums and sneaking into astronomy shows at the Hayden Planetarium (which charged an entrance fee Millie couldn't afford). In high school, Millie became a REAL entrepreneur by developing a well-paying tutoring operation, for which she was paid $5 per hour ($67 an hour in 2021 dollars). Weinstock observes, "By the time she got to college, Millie had earned enough to not only help her parents with bills but also to become financially independent."

After graduating high school, Millie went on to attend Hunter College, and - at first - had only moderate aspirations. Teachers had told Millie there were only three possible careers for women, teaching, nursing, and secretarial work, and Millie was thinking of a job in secondary education.



Then Millie took an introductory physics course from Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (who later won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine), and the die was cast. Yalow saw whip-smart Millie's potential, and pushed her to pursue science research. Millie later said, "Yalow was the one who was most influential in leading me to attend graduate school and to go to the best schools and to study with the best scholars."


Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

After Hunter College, Millie got a Fulbright Scholarship to England's University of Cambridge, studied at Radcliffe College/Harvard University, and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago - where she studied under Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi. Weinstock writes, "Throughout her career, Millie credited Fermi, whose genius allowed him to excel in both theory and experimentation, with teaching her to think like a physicist."


Enrico Fermi

Fermi and his wife Laura often hosted dinners for students, and this later inspired Millie to "provide her own students with a familial atmosphere at the lab, at group luncheons, and at events at the Dresselhauses' home....where kindred spirits enjoyed one another's company."

Enrico Fermi was a sharp contrast to Millie's Ph.D. advisor at the University of Chicago, Professor Andrew Lawson, who held a deep-seated bias against women in science. Lawson gave Millie no assistance with her research and was unhappy every time Millie got a fellowship or any kind of recognition because he thought it was a waste of resources. Millie later said, "When I sought him out, he essentially told me to get lost." Decades later, when Millie was famous in her field, Lawson "sincerely apologized." (Yeah.....maybe. 😕)


Professor Andrew Lawson

One man at the University of Chicago who was completely different from Lawson was Ph.D. student Gene Dresselhaus, a rising star in theoretical physics. When Gene and Millie met it was kismet, and - besides falling in love with Millie - Gene "provided a flood of encouragement in the absence of a proper advisor." Millie and Gene married and had four children, all while continuing with their stellar careers.


Millie and Gene Dresselhaus


Millie Dresselhaus' parents visit Millie, Gene, and the children


Millie Dresselhaus and her children

Gene was the most supportive helpful husband imaginable, and Weinstock provides an in depth look at the Dresselhauses' family life as well as their employment, research, collaborators, publications, accomplishments, awards, etc. - all of which you can read in the book.


Millie Dresselhaus teaching a class


Millie and Gene Dresselhaus with their long-time collaborator Morinobu Endo

In a nutshell, the Dresselhauses did most of their work at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they settled into a two-story, four-bedroom house that would be their home for 55-plus years. Millie and Gene's individual and joint work in carbon science set the stage for technologies that have already changed the world - such as rechargeable lithium ion batteries for your cell phone, and carbon fiber composites that have transformed industries from aviation to athletics. Millie and Gene also laid the groundwork for new science and engineering that are just now revolutionizing technologies of the future, from flexible digital displays to quantum computers.


Millie and Gene Dresselhaus worked together for their entire lives

In addition to Millie's research and teaching, she spent time with young women of MIT, to provide encouragement, advice, and a sounding board for their frustrations, which arose from discrimination in a male chauvinist environment. Weinstock observes, "Millie was destined to support women and other underrepresented students in critical ways for the rest of her career - at MIT and elsewhere." Weinstock provides many examples of Millie's assistance to students who didn't traditionally enter science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.

On a personal note, Millie had several signature marks: a braided updo, inspired by an Austrian hairstyle, that insured Millie's hair was always neat and out of the way in the lab; Scandinavian style knit sweaters, one of Millie's favorites being a cardinal red with wine and black accents and silver buckles; and Millie's nickname, Queen of Carbon.


Millie Dresselhaus liked Scandinavian-style sweaters

As a creative outlet beyond her academic and service work, Millie enjoyed music, hiking, cooking and entertaining. Millie and Gene regularly opened their home to their associates, and "in addition to music nights, they often invited students, colleagues, and others to fill their abode with laughter, food, and conversation."


Millie Dressehaus enjoyed playing her violin

Millie passed away on February 20, 2017, surrounded by her loved ones. A marker at Millie's grave featuring carbon hexagons now reads: "Cherished Wife, Mother, Grandmother; Physicist & MIT Professor; Queen of Carbon - An improbable life, well shared."


Tribute to Millie Dresselhaus from her collaborator and friend Morinobu Endo

Weinstock's book is a well-researched and well-written overview of the life of a remarkable woman. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4.5 stars