In a real-life mystery as intriguing as the plots from her novels, Agatha Christie went missing for 10 days in the winter of 1926. To this day, no one really knows what she got up to, and literary biographer Andrew Wilson can’t resist the opportunity to use this fascinating set-up as a starting point for a really enjoyable – and wholly fictional – blackmail and murder-laden thriller. It’s a simple premise easily encapsulated on the jacket: “You, Mrs Christie, are going to commit a murder… but, before then, you are going to disappear.” But with a backdrop of marital breakdown and real-life scandal it feels a lot less stagey than a typical Christie novel.
A Talent for Murder is the first in a series and has been optioned for TV: it’s not difficult to see why. Wilson not only knows his subject but he deftly moves this Agatha Christie tale away from mere literary ventriloquism and into darker, more psychological territory. Great fun, too.
• A Talent for Murder by Andrew Wilson is published by Simon & Schuster (£14.99). To order a copy for £12.74 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
