Thursday 15 October 2020

Book Review: THE MYSTERY OF MRS. CHRISTIE by Marie Benedict

 



Title: THE MYSTERY OF MRS CHRISTIE

Author:  Marie Benedict

Publisher:  Sourcebooks Landmark

Read: October 2020

Expected publication: 12 January 2021

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

 

 

Book Description:

 

In December 1926, Agatha Christie goes missing.

Investigators find her empty car on the edge of a deep, gloomy pond, the only clues some tire tracks nearby and a fur coat left in the car—strange for a frigid night. Her husband and daughter have no knowledge of her whereabouts, and England unleashes an unprecedented manhunt to find the up-and-coming mystery author. Eleven days later, she reappears, just as mysteriously as she disappeared, claiming amnesia and providing no explanations for her time away.

The puzzle of those missing eleven days has persisted. With her trademark exploration into the shadows of history, acclaimed author Marie Benedict brings us into the world of Agatha Christie, imagining why such a brilliant woman would find herself at the center of such a murky story.

What is real, and what is mystery? What role did her unfaithful husband play, and what was he not telling investigators?

A master storyteller whose clever mind may never be matched, Agatha Christie's untold history offers perhaps her greatest mystery of all.



My musings:

 


Ever since reading Agatha Christie’s autobiography as a teen, after having binge-read my way through all her books, I have been intrigued by the real life mystery surrounding her ten-day disappearance in 1926, a secret she has taken to the grave with her. I was therefore very excited to read Marie Benedict’s interpretation of what could have happened, and I must say that I liked this version very much!

 

The handsome and yet stiff-upper-lip arrogant Archibald Christie did little to endear himself to me in Benedict’s book, and yet the format of the two separate POVs – one told by Agatha and one by Archie – worked very well here. Whilst Agatha recounts her love affair with her handsome husband from the day she met him to the day she vanished, Archie’s timeline starts at the time of Agatha’s disappearance. An air of foreshadowing hangs over his head like a dark stain, and I became increasingly more disenchanted with him as the story progressed.

 

I won’t say much more about the story here, as the facts are well known and Benedict’s interpretation should remain a surprise until you read it, but I can say that I found it very satisfying. There also followed a period of furious googling to read old newspaper articles about Agatha’s disappearance, and look at some old photos from the time, and again it got me wondering ...

 

THE MYSTERY OF MRS CHRISTIE is a satisfying, fun read that tackles one of the great unsolved mysteries of our time. Whilst there are many theories about what happened to Agatha Christie in the ten days she was “missing”, no one really knows the truth. I take my hat off to Marie Benedict for tackling such a prominent historical mystery and do it justice. Well done!

 

 


Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

 


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