From the winner of the Dobbie Literary Award, the Barbara Ramsden Award and the Andrew Eiseman Award.Yes, she said, finally. Breaks are important. There are times when it's wiser to get away. From it all.It was the work of a moment: On 4 December 1926, Agatha Christie became Teresa Neele, resident of the spa hotel, the Harrogate Hydro. With her wedding ring left behind, and her minimal belongings unpacked, the lost days begin.Lying to her fellow guests about the death of a husband and child, Teresa settles in to the anonymity she so fiercely desires. Until Harry McKenna, bruised from the end of his own marriage, asks her to dance.In this entrancing novel of creativity and grief, Kristel Thornell combines fact and fantasy to reconstruct Agatha Christie's retreat from a life that had become too difficult. With verve and sensitivity, Thornell imagines what Christie could not write.

Night Street is the passionate story of a young painter, Clarice Beckett, who defies society's strict conventions and indifferent art critics alike and leads an intense private and professional life. With her extraordinary talent for making simple city and seascapes haunting and mysteriously revelatory, Clarice paints prolifically and lives largely, overcoming the seemingly confined existence. Night Street began with Thornell's first encounter with Beckett’s paintings. The subtle power of Beckett's enigmatic landscapes enabled her to imagine Clarice's inner life and shape an extraordinary novel. Kristel Thornell grew up in Australia and has lived in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. She’s published reviews, poetry, and fiction. Biographical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction.