Unfinished Portrait by Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie)

Unfinished Portrait“Do you know the feeling you have when you know something quite well and yet for the life of you can’t recollect it?”

Oh, wow!  After my first Westmacott novel, Giant’s Bread, I was really dreading Unfinished Portrait, but what a masterpiece of human psychology, human frailty and the unexpected journey that life has in store for all of us!

The novel begins on an island where a successful portrait painter meets a young woman who is ready to take her own life.  Through speaking with her, he learns of her childhood and marriage and both the humorous and tragic circumstances that slowly led her to where she is that day.

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