January 2021

Marie Benedict’s THE MYSTERY OF MRS. CHRISTIE takes readers down the rabbit hole with the real-life adventure of Agatha Christie. Many of us are familiar with Marie’s previous works, all of which looked at the woman who was “beside the man.” Here she takes a woman who we all think we know well as a writer, and walks us through the paces of an event that many of us may not know about --- the 11 days in December 1926 when she went missing. I know this is something I was never aware of. What happened and why?

There are some facts that are known. Christie had recently lost her mother, and she had lost faith in her marriage and her husband. Then she packed a bag and headed off, ostensibly for a week away. Her car was found damaged, with her license and warm coat inside. Clearly these were left as clues lest there was any doubt that it was Christie who had abandoned the vehicle. But what followed were dead ends. The master storyteller seemed to have vanished.

The meeting and courtship of Christie and her husband, Archie, is well told as backstory, beginning in 1912. Flipping to this timeframe, readers get more insight into the couple from their first blush of love to the moments when the bonds of their marriage unravel as they grow apart. And their young daughter, Rosalind, remains somewhat caught in the drama. For years, Christie’s attention to Archie and her writing left Rosalind without the maternal guidance she craved. And when Christie goes missing, it is one more tough moment for Rosalind to bear. Yes, Christie’s flaws are on display, as well as her talents.

While readers become caught up in the mystery of the disappearance, this becomes the perfect foil for Marie to tell a multilayered, multi-timelined story about this gifted writer. Book groups may want to read it in conjunction with an Agatha Christie mystery, or each group member may want to take one on and the group can spend a meeting discussing THE MYSTERY OF MRS. CHRISTIE and her work.