Andrew Wilson, best known for his biographies of Patricia Highsmith (Beautiful Shadow) and Sylvia Plath (Mad Girl's Love Song), smoothly moves into mystery writing with the aptly titled A Talent for Murder. In it, he imagines Agatha Christie at the center of a diabolical cat-and-mouse battle with a deranged physician.
In 1926, after her sixth novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, brought her great acclaim, Christie disappeared from her home. Thousands of police and volunteers joined a 10-day manhunt before she was found. While Christie never discussed her disappearance, Wilson uses this headline-grabbing incident to create a fast-paced, pleasingly twisted and creepy thriller. Christie is being blackmailed into committing a murder for the sadistic, bearded Dr. Patrick Kurs, who reeks of a "poisonous cloud of halitosis." Can the distraught Christie figure out a way to turn the tables on the deranged doctor without imperiling the lives of her young daughter and philandering husband?
A Talent for Murder reads like an amalgamation of a clever Agatha Christie puzzler with the darker characters and psychological insights found in Patricia Highsmith's thrillers. Wilson alternates first-person chapters from Christie's point of view with third-person chapters following a charming amateur sleuth named Una Crowe--who is smarter than the police (they think Christie is dead) but may unwittingly be putting herself into the path of Christie's tormentor. With strong characters, shrewd plotting and a skillful blending of fact and fiction, A Talent for Murder is a compelling period mystery that will keep whodunit fans captivated. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant