Absent in the Spring

Stranded at a rest house in the desert with nothing to do and no one to talk to, Joan Scudamore begins examining a life she has always described as happy. Agatha Christie wrote this novel away from detection and puzzle plots, publishing it under the name Mary Westmacott. There is no crime to solve; the suspense comes from a woman slowly assembling the evidence against her own version of her marriage and her children. The narrow setting does the work, stripping away company and routine until only memory is left. How it reads: • Psychological fiction rather than detection, from Christie's Westmacott novels • A single confined setting that forces the narrator inward • A close study of self-deception inside one family • Harper Collins edition for readers collecting Christie beyond the mysteries Recommended for readers of character-driven literary fiction, published by Harper Collins and available at Boipoka.