Unfinished Portrait

Unfinished Portrait
Agatha Christie

A stunning novel of death and destiny.Bereft of the three people she has held most dear - her mother, her husband and her daughter - Celia is on the verge of suicide. Then one night on an exotic island she meets Larraby, a successful portrait painter, and through a long night of talk reveals how she is afraid to commit herself to a second chance of happiness with another person, yet is not brave enough to face life alone. Can Larraby help Celia come to terms with the past or will they part, her outcome still uncertain?Famous for her ingenious crime books and plays, Agatha Christie also wrote about crimes of the heart, six bittersweet and very personal novels, as compelling and memorable as the best of her work.

Copyright (#u64e98943-65fd-5352-ba5e-7045f7b3aff9)

HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by Collins 1934

Copyright © 1934 Rosalind Hicks Charitable Trust. All rights reserved.

www.agathachristie.com (http://www.agathachristie.com)

Cover by ninataradesign.com (http://www.ninataradesign.com) © HarperCollins 2017

Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008131470

Ebook Edition © June 2017 ISBN: 9780007534968

Version: 2018-04-11

Contents

Cover (#u86010525-7fca-5186-94ed-54782f09205b)

Title Page (#ua72bd6ba-d8eb-5038-858c-6fce85fafedf)

Copyright

Foreword

BOOK I: The Island

Chapter 1. The Woman in the Garden

Chapter 2. Call to Action

BOOK II: Canvas

Chapter 1. Home

Chapter 2. Abroad

Chapter 3. Grannie

Chapter 4. Death

Chapter 5. Mother and Daughter

Chapter 6. Paris

Chapter 7. Grown Up

Chapter 8. Jim and Peter

Chapter 9. Dermot

Chapter 10. Marriage

Chapter 11. Motherhood

Chapter 12. Peace

Chapter 13. Companionship

Chapter 14. Ivy

Chapter 15. Prosperity

Chapter 16. Loss

Chapter 17. Disaster

Chapter 18. Fear

BOOK III: The Island

Chapter 1. Surrender

Chapter 2. Reflection

Chapter 3. Flight

Chapter 4. Beginning