Like Agatha Christie, I guess I have been missing from here for a couple of weeks. Unlike her, I was just overwhelmed with work and trying to put away winter things, sort and get rid of things. Took a few days off from work to, as I said to someone, spring clean the house and my mind.
For our May Mystery Book Club, we read The Mystery of Mrs. Christie. You probably knew about her mysterious disappearance in 1926. There is still speculation about it and at least one movie made about it.
"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."
I really liked this book. It really is hard to put down. The author, Marie Benedict, has taken facts about Ms. Christie and woven in a story about what maybe happened. The story does go back and forth in time periods, from when Agatha meets her future husband, Col. Christie, to the day she disappears and the investigation.
The book also deals with social mores of the time and the role of women. Families still tried to arrange "good" marriages for their children for what they thought would be appropriate for all. Women were expected to live for their husbands and not dabble in their own "work".
All in all, it was a great story.
I am interested in reading other books by Marie Benedict. She has written other works of fiction based on famous people; The Other Einstein (Albert Einstein's wife) Carnegie's Maid (maid for Andrew Carnegie), Lady Clementine (Winston Churchill's wife), and The Only Woman in the Room (Hedy Lamar. They all sound very intriguing.
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