Duchess of Death: The Unauthorized Biography of Agatha Christie Hardcover – July 1, 2009

've been an Agatha Christie fan for many years now and have read several of her novels and short stories during my high school and college years and beyond.I can't remember when I first became acquainted with Agatha Christie's novels and short stories exactly. All I can add is that after reading one of her novels, I was hooked!Surprisingly enough though, I've known very little about her personal life -- Other than a few tidbits of information learned here and there throughout the years.So, when I came across the unabridged audio version of Duchess of Death: The Unauthorized Biography of Agatha Christie by Richard Hack earlier this year, I decided to buy and listen to it.This memoir is read by British actor Nicolas Coster and I felt he did a wonderful job of bringing life to 'Duchess of Death: The Unauthorized Biography of Agatha Christie'.I also enjoyed learning a lot of interesting information about the life of Agatha Christie that I would have never know otherwise.... Like the fact that she was a shy person and fairly humble about her success as an author/writer. I was also surprised by how well traveled Ms. Christie was. I was also impressed to learn how much time she actually spent at the archeological sites with her second husband, archeologist Max Mallowan.My only major complaint about 'Duchess of Death: The Unauthorized Biography of Agatha Christie' is that it was a bit on the dry side and slow in certain sections. Otherwise it was a wonderful memoir and one worth discovering, especially if you're an Agatha Christie enthusiast.

I began reading and couldn't stop until I had finished the book - it was such a good read. What a pleasure it was, following so soon after my attempt at reading the "authorized" biography by Janet Morgan. Morgan's book is primarily a book of data and facts about Mrs. Christie's life and requires one to skip over all the data to find bits and pieces of words about Mrs. Christie's life. It was difficult to read and after the 2nd chapter, I quite trying to get through the book. With Mr. Hack's book, however, there were no difficulties and no skipping over anything..it was a pleasure to read. It read like a novel and I couldn't wait for more. In the last half of the book there were admittedly more of the data/facts listed but the author didn't let the data take priority over telling the story of her life. By data, I mean the following; listing of each book with dates published and publisher, the number of books written at that point, number of plays written and when, etc. etc. in great detail. I felt that should anyone want to know the details of each book, play, or short story, these should be in a separate chart or list. Fortunately in this book, Mr. Hack kept my interest by providing the story of Mrs. Christie's life and kept the "data" to a minimum. I enjoyed reading about Mrs. Christie's life and found this book very well done. For those who prefer facts and data over a good read, choose Janet Morgan's book.

As an Agatha Christie fan of long standing, I thought I knew about her life experiences as well as her works, but this really presented a lot of insight and detail I was unaware of. I got the audio-book and have to say the reader, an actor I remember from soaps when I was young, must have been given stage directions to speak in a very over-the-top theatrical manner which at times was almost comical. However, in it's own way it sounded like many people did sound at that time. It did not distract from my enjoyment, but I did tell a fellow Christie reader, who chose the book version instead. She started reading it and finished in less than 2 days. So either way, for anyone interested in the personal life of Agatha Christie and how it affected her works, who enjoys seeing how the decades also can affect a career (consider, there was no television when she started writing and now some of us live for Mystery on PBS!) or who accepted the 'amnesia' version of her disappearance, this is an enjoyable find.

This book is a retelling of the life of Agatha Christie drawn from her writings, from previously published sources, and, perhaps, from letters and papers at the University of Exeter, or perhaps not. This is not clear in spite of the cover of the book proclaiming that this is an "unauthorized biography" that was drawn "from over 5,000 unpublished letters, notes, and documents." Inside the book, however, there is no mention of these letters etc. except by implication in the thanks to the research staff at the University of Exeter. They are not mentioned in the extensive bibliography. "Letters" are cited in the endnotes without further explanation. Some letters are cited to Laura Thompson's "Agatha Christie: An English Mystery" which, interestingly, is not mentioned in the Bibliography. There are other interesting gaps in Bibliography: Christie's own "Come Tell Me How You Live" is not cited, yet is obviously the source of much of the Middle East information. Only one of the Westmacott novels is listed although these must be the major source of insight into Christie's perception of her own emotional life. I do not have the sense that the author is being deceitful, but rather than he is being sloppy. The deceit, I think, is from the publisher whose hype on the cover implies that there is something new between these covers. There is not.There is also sloppiness in useage. These are not big flaws, just little annoyances. Examples: In the UK they do not have "twin beds"; they have single beds. They do not have "backyards"; they have gardens. They do not "graduate from high school"; they leave school. Agatha Christie was never Lady Agatha Christie. That would communicate that she was the daughter of a duke, marquis, or earl. She was Lady Mallowan (not Lady Agatha Mallowan, just Lady Mallowan) as the wife of Sir Max Mallowan. She was also Dame Agatha Christie in her own right.What is most puzzling about this book is that the first part of it is quite well done and evokes Christie's life in an engaging way. It is a good read. It is interesting. He tells the Harrogate incident quite well and with a convincing understanding of what might have happened. Then, about the middle of the book when Christie is remarried and off to the Middle East, the story becomes dull and uninteresting. There are lists of books published and movies made. There is a mention of the unrelenting tax problems. There is illness and there is death. Obviously, the material is what the material is, but good grief, what a bore he makes it. It's as if the book was written by two different people: one a novelist and biographer and the other the writer of corporate brochures.Generally, I must say that Laura Thompson's book is a much better read and she had the real advantage of the cooperation of Christie's family. The "unauthorized" and "unpublished" sources mentioned on the cover implies falsely that something new will be offered. It is not. This is simply an uneven library job.

Very badly researched. Waste of money. Another book where the author has jumped on the bandwagon and not researched the subject in death. Frankly l was very disappointed.