Duchess of Death: The Unauthorized Biography of Agatha Christie

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.

Surprisingly captivating, it flows easily and one feels a bit of an eaves-dropper because of so much detail. Although I had read her autobiography - it left big gaps and blanks. But this book filled them all in - and the author writes w/ good intentions and is quite respectful of this imaginative and sensitive person - I do think it caught her essence of this great lady. Glad I read it this book by Richard Hack. PS I don't believe everything I read but surely, the appendix is one of the most thorough I have seen in any biography. Well worth a reading by any AC devotees.

'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.

An avid fan of Agatha Christie, so much so that I named my mini schnauzer Agatha! I haven't read the book in its entirety, but the snippets tht I have read are very interesting. The item arrived on time and I am pleased with this purchase. Any history buff will enjoy this book and add it to their collection of Agatha's best sellers.

This was our book club selection for October and I purchased the Kindle version - not the hardcover version. I agree with several of the reviewers who found this book to be a little tedious - a sort of cataloging of AC's life and writings. This is the first biography of AC that I have read and I believe I will look for others. And I have to add that this was the first time I had trouble with a Kindle edition. There were many formatting errors throughout the book. The beginnings of chapters with the quotes in italics had NO spaces between the words, so were very difficult to read. Footnotes were interspersed with the body of the writing. In several places the printing was "faded" - did not have good contrast. I did finish the book and was pleased to see the list of her works at the end.

I thought this was a fascinating story of Agatha Christie's life. I am amazed at how well travelled she was back in the day and how prolific with her writing. The 12 day absence segment was of particular interest and seemed like a plausible scenario.The first half of her life was the most interesting to me.She was a person of many accomplishments.

How wonderful to find this book! Thank you!

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.