Absent in the Spring

Written by Agatha Christie under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott, this was not her usual fare of mystery, but general fiction. Joan Scudamore is traveling back to England after visiting her daughter in Baghdad, and the rains have caught her between trains on the Turkish border between trains. Stranded in the desert with nothing to do and nothing to read, Joan is left to simply reflect on her life, her family, and come to grips with some harsh realities about herself. I found this novel gripping, perhaps because of Christie's keen observations of people, and I found it ultimately disappointing, because of Joan's final decision.