Ask a Bookseller: ‘Absent in the Spring’ by Agatha Christie re-published

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.If you were to find an old copy of the 1944 novel “Absent in the Spring,” it would say the author was Mary Westmacott.That’s the pen name famed mystery novelist Agatha Christie used when she wanted to write literary fiction, and bookseller Charlotte Lehigh of WordPlay in Wardensville, West Virginia, says the six Westmacotts were, until recently, hard to find. “They were the unicorn or the Holy Grail for collectors, and so all of the Agatha Christie fans are very, very excited to be able to have these little nuggets finally back in circulation,” Lehigh says. Newly re-published in July, “Absent in the Spring” is a “compulsive” read, says Lehigh. Christie wrote the book in just three days. Our protagonist, busy wife and mother Joan, is waylaid during her travels and finds herself alone with her thoughts. As she re-examines her life and her relationships, she grows increasingly anxious about what she finds. Lehigh says the 81-year-old book still feels relevant: “Joan could be any woman at any stage in history, in any place and time. Joan could be stuck in any situation, and the feelings and the human element would still be the same.”