The Woman On The Orient Express by Lindsay Jayne Ashford

I have an uneasy relationship with books of this nature - you take a real person and a real event or two and then smoosh them up with fabricated emotions and events.  All too often they feel, at the bare minimum, strangely voyeuristic.  Somehow the author has managed to weave the reality and the fantasy together in a completely compelling way that keeps you turning the pages eagerly.

The main thrust of the novel takes place after the well-publicised "Harrogate Incident" and follows Agatha Christie on a solo trip abroad on the magnificent Orient Express.  A rail journey that she is both looking forward too immensely and dreading in no small measure.  What starts off as an exploration of Ms Christie's state of mind after her divorce soon explodes in to a tale of female friendship and the rebuilding of three women's lives.  There is also a little mystery thrown in for good measure - how could there not be with the Orient Express and Agatha Christie involved.

The descriptions of the scenery are lush and inviting.  I am not one for travelling but the landscapes and the smells are so evocative within the pages that I did find myself somewhat tempted to experience them for myself.  In particular the scenes at Ur really helped you feel the oppressive heat, the grit of the sand getting in to every nook and cranny and the thrill of new discoveries - in more ways than one for Agatha.

It is not all about Agatha Christie and the landscapes, or even the train.  It is about her travelling companions Nancy and Katherine too.  Their stories are just as compelling and Agatha's and, in many ways, much more tragic.  Although not everyone featured was a real person who definitely knew Agatha Christie or was certainly in the same social circle so could be postulated to have known her there is such a taut blend between fact and fiction that even the genuinely fictional characters and events feel real.  This particularly applies to Nancy and her rather shocking, for the times, predicament.

I also enjoyed the tiny section at the end where the author takes the time to recommend further reading for the "true" story of what happened during those years and also to lay out what liberties she had taken with both the timeline of certain meetings and events in Agatha Christie's life.  I have never read any Agatha Christie novels or really knew much more about her than her disappearing off to Harrogate - having read this book it has made me somewhat intrigued to learn more about her and maybe read some of her books.