Absent In The Spring---Mary Westmacott Novels

A newly reissued edition of Agatha Christie’s ‘Mary Westmacott’ novel, a Crime of the Heart novel about a loyal wife’s discovery of her husband’s infidelity.

'The one book that has satisfied me completely - the book I always wanted to write.' Agatha Christie

Returning from a visit to her daughter in Iraq, Joan Scudamore finds herself unexpectedly alone and stranded in an isolated rest house by flooding of the railway tracks. This sudden solitude compels Joan to assess her life for the first time ever and face up to many of the truths about herself. Looking back over the years, Joan painfully re-examines her attitudes, relationships and actions and becomes increasingly uneasy about the person who is revealed to her…

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles', written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in 44 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott and saw her work translated into more languages than Shakespeare. Her enduring success, enhanced by many film and TV adaptations, is a tribute to the timeless appeal of her characters and the unequalled ingenuity of the plots.

'I've not been so emotionally moved by a story since the memorable Brief Encounter… Absent in the Spring is a tour de force which should be recognized as a classic.' New York Times

'Very readable indeed.' Times Literary Supplement