Agatha Christie is one of the worlds greatest mystery writers who has written numerous iconic books and created memorable characters. She was a memorable character herself and this book does her justice. It was especially interesting to read Marie Benedict's take on her disappearance in 1926. People are divided over whether or not she staged it. I really enjoyed getting a view inside her mind and life. I have read all of Marie's books and loved them, this was no exception. I highly recommend it for mystery lovers and lovers of interesting females.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I am a huge fan of everything related to Agatha Christie, she is one of my favorite authors ever, so when I saw this title I could not restrain myself to apply for it. It did not disappoint. Very clever plot and the characters feel so real. One of my best reads this year.

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!

Nope. This was a huge miss. Sophomoric. Just bad writing. And seriously - “Detective Chief Constable” can’t be shortened? It’s like the author is intentionally trying to irritate the hell out of her readers by refusing to call him simply “Kenward”. Or DCC Kenward. There is no need to abuse us that way.

This narrative contains too many trite circumstances, too much dialogue that sounds like 2020, not 1926. It is unlikely that agatha christie was ever the pathetic creature portrayed in this novel, but if the author wants to imagine she was, then don’t portray her in the next breath as a strong, scheming, independent woman who outfoxes and overpowers her husband to arrive at a satisfying finish. The abrupt turnaround is just not believable.

I can’t recommend this at all, but if you haven’t yet read “the other woman in the room”, i can recommend that one.

Read if you: Want a historical fiction read with twists and turns, are a Marie Benedict fan, or are an Agatha Christie fan!

Librarians/booksellers: While many people will recognize Agatha Christie as the grande dame of detective and mystery fiction, many probably don't know her own mysterious life story. Although it takes a bit to get into the crux of the story--once it does, it has a good amount of surprises! Marie Benedict is one of my favorite authors, and this did not disappoint.

(My only regret is that the author's note was not included in the ARC. Bummer!)

Many thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

A novel explores the real life mystery of where Agatha Christie went after the breakup of her marriage. Agatha Christie's meeting of her future husband, Archie, is told in a manuscript she is writing, offset by the breakup of their marriage due to her husband's affair with another woman and him wanting to run away with her. Archie gets a call from a maid that his wife has gone missing, and soon finds himself in the spotlight as the police, the press and even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wonders where the writer has gone and if foul play is involved. And guess who is high on the suspect list?

An imaginative story (no one knows where she went or why really) that puts a believable spin on the events, fans of Christie will enjoy this historical mystery.

Marie Benedict has such a gift for selecting questionable gaps in history and filling them with fantastically researched and workable stories. In 1926, Agatha Christie's beloved mother died and rather than support her emotionally, her douchebag husband told her he was in love with another woman. The Mystery of Mrs. Christie conjectures quite convincingly as to what might have happened during Agatha's subsequent absence, discovery and amnesia.

I do still wonder what happened to Agatha's first fiance Reggie Lucy.

I loved this book as much as I loved reading Carnegie's Maid, and I'm all the more motivated now to read The Other Einstein also by Benedict. Sourcebooks Landmark will publish The Mystery of Mrs. Christie 12 Jan 2021, my thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

There was always an aura of mystery around Agatha Christie but never as much as when she disappeared into thin air. Marie Benedict gives us a glimpse into what may have happened and insight into her life and marriage. She was raised to be a stoic British wife who put her husband and then children before her own needs. When she wanted to write it was treated as a whim and even when she brought in quite an income and success, it was still dismissed by her husband. When she goes missing her husband is cool and unconcerned but he becomes more agitated when his little secret might not stay a secret. Her car is found abandoned with her belongings inside at a remote spot known for suicides and still her husband doesn't think they will look at him. The chapters alternate between her early years and then up to her disappearance. Yet another historical tale that shares the behind the scenes look at a brilliant and largely unknown woman. It is as if Ms. Benedict summoned Ms. Christie from the great beyond to lay the clues and we get to solve her mystery. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

As a huge Agatha Christie fan, I have always been fascinated by her disappearance. Ms. Benedict provides us with an engrossing theory of how her disappearance may have happened. We will of course never really know what happened.

Agatha Christie's mysterious disappearance for 11 days in December of 1926 rivals the best of her books. The world may never know what really occurred, but it is fascinating to imagine what did. This historical novel weaves the story of Mrs. Christie's disappearance from the point of view of her husband with the story of their life together. We follow Agatha's journey from a romantic encounter at a dance with the dashingly handsome military man to her life as a wife, mother, and successful author. The disappearance occurred as the marriage was coming apart. Did Agatha create her own real life mystery? This is a must read for all Christie fans!

In December of 1926 the author Agatha Christie disappeared. Her car was found by a lake and the police and regular citizens searched for her for over a week. When she was found it was claimed she suffered from amnesia. later her marriage ended in divorce and she remarried and became an even more prolific mystery writer. There have been at least two films that suggested what Ms. Christie did during her disappearance and Ms. Benedict gives an entertaining version of what might have happened. She goes back and forth between her first meeting Archie and her disappearance. Worth a Sunday read.

Most Agatha Christie fans are at least aware that she mysteriously disappeared for 11 days in 1926. In this book, Benedict imagines how her philandering husband Archie might have weathered the police investigation. The chapters flip between a manuscript that lays out the story of their courtship and marriage and Archie’s uncomfortable portrayal of a distraught husband.

Even knowing how the true story ends, the book is still suspenseful as Archie becomes increasingly desperate to hide any involvement he may or may not have had. It would appeal to any Christie fan who wants to indulge in the speculation, or any mystery or historical fiction reader who might not be as familiar with this icon of the mystery genre.

I received a complimentary e-copy of this book from Sourcebooks, NetGalley and Edelweiss.

The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. pub date 01/12/21

An abandoned car brings the police to Styles, the famous residence of Agatha and Archibald Christie. The famous writer has gone missing after a fierce quarrel between the couple during breakfast. Archie does not seem concerned at all and he is astonishingly reluctant to cooperate with the investigators. For the detectives, his behaviour is highly suspicious and even more so when they uncover an affair he has had for quite some time and because of which he asked his wife for a divorce. Yet, all this information is not really helpful in determining the whereabouts of the grand dame of crime. This is one way the story can be told, but maybe there is also a completely different version.

“Then the phone rang, shattering my lonely vigil. When I picked it up, I nearly cried in relief to hear a familiar voice. But then the voice spoke. And in that moment, I knew that everything had changed.”

Agatha Christie’s disappearance in December 1926 is, due to broad media coverage, a well known fact. However, the mystery has never been really solved and the crime writer herself did not comment on what actually happened during the ten days of her absence. Marie Benedict, by whom I already totally adored the portrait of Hedy Lamarr in “The Only Woman in the Room”, fills this gap with a very clever story which especially enthused my due to the tone which perfectly copies the crime writer’s style.

The narration tells the events of two points in time alternatingly. The first recounts how Agatha and Archie met, their first years during WW1 and their quick marriage which is immediately followed by darker years stemming from Archie’s depressive and dark moods. The second point of time follows the events after her disappearance. The first is shown from Agatha’s point of view, the later gives more insight in Archie’s state of mind thus revealing a lot to the reader but at the same time, omitting very relevant pieces of information which keeps suspense at a high level.

Even though it is a mystery, it is also the story of a woman who wants her marriage to succeed, who is willing to put herself and her daughter second after her husband’s needs and who fights even though there is nothing to win anymore. However, she does not breakdown but emerges stronger and wiser since she used her cleverness and capacity of plotting to free herself of her marital chains

I enjoy reading imagined history of events that we have no real answers to and books that send me searching for the facts and for pictures of the characters. This book did just that. Because the real incident is well-known, it is not a page turner, but the author sets the stage for the final chapters that bring the story to its conclusion. I think we will never know the solution to Agatha Christie's greatest unsolved mystery, but this a good attempt at seeing into her mind at the time of her disappearance.

Marie Benedict has done it again, captivate readers with the story of a famous woman that isn't known. This is the story of Agatha Christie's marriage and her mysterious disappearance. Readers are drawn into the story of how Agatha Christie became a famous mystery writer and into the greatest mystery of her life, her disappearance. What happened when she was missing? Where was she?

A fictional account of Agatha Christie's life and work, this title is well written and will keep the reader's attention. At the center of the plot is the real life disappearance of Agatha Christie. The author has used imagination to develop a plausible theory to Mrs. Christie's time when she "disappeared" from her home, leaving her husband and child clueless. A nicely written book.

I have mixed feelings on this book. Marie Benedict is an incredible writer. And her prose here is as wonderful as her previous books.

However, this story is simply incredibly weak. There isn’t much for Benedict to explore here as in her previous books. And what she does explore is mostly conjecture and fiction. There isn’t too much of a historical aspect to it other than what the media has said for years, that Mrs. Christie claimed amnesia.

The book is broken into Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 2 is only roughly 30 pages or so long.....so the “explanation” in the end that she comes up with, while beautifully written and emotionally powerful, is short and concise, and needed to be flushed out more.

Overall, I was very disappointed with this one. It was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021 and was so excited to get the ARC, thank you to Sourcebooks and Netgalley, but I normally finish a book in a day or two and I’ve been struggling over 5 days to get through this one because the first 80% or so really didn’t entertain me like I thought it would with an book focused on Agatha Christie.

I have been binge-watching Agatha Christie mysteries so I was very intrigued by this book. I knew very little about the famous author going into this novel and I found the whole business of her disappearance and the relationship with her husband quite interesting and heartbreaking. I enjoyed the format of this novel which alternates between Agatha's viewpoint in the past to her husband in the present dealing with her disappearance. I will be seeking out Marie Benedict's other novels to read. I really enjoy her writing and I know many of my library patrons will as well!