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Rebecca_H
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie
Benedict's novel is an interesting fictionalized take on the well-known disappearance of the mystery writer Agatha Christie in 1926 when her whereabouts were unknown for eleven days. Her car was found abandoned with a bag of clothes inside. Although it was unknown to the press at the time, Mrs. Christie's husband had just told her that he wanted a divorce in order to marry his mistress. Her vanishing caused a sensation in newspapers all across England, the police and public wondering if she had become a victim of foul play in the style of one of her own novels.
The author has organized the story using alternating dual timelines, one encompassing the early years of Christie's romance, marriage, and writing career, and the other the eleven days following her disappearance. The former timeline chapters tell the story from Mrs. Christie's point of view, and the latter from the viewpoint of her husband, Archie. For the reader, this makes an interesting juxtaposition between two different interpretations of events. The circumstances, attitudes, and emotions which motivate the actions of the characters are well-developed in the chapters dealing with the earlier time frame and the novelist's imagination fills in the gaps in what is known about the real-life events.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and I think the dual-timeline approach works well for the most part. The pace moves along well and the characters are believable and well-drawn. There is some dialogue that doesn't quite ring true for me in terms of the speech of that particular social class during that time period in England, but this problem may be addressed in the final edition of the book.
All in all, I'd rate the novel as an enjoyable story well worth reading.
Juliana (Falls Church, VA)
A Fresh Take
It is the first novel by Marie Benedict that I read and the first time I learn about the incident inspiring this story. If you are anything like me, you go about trying to learn some of the facts behind this true event, read about other explorations of the topic, are surprised at the coverage it has had and then ask yourself what could be a new take on it. (But you don't have to, of course, the novel stands on its own as is.) Then, Marie Benedict's proves to be a commendable, valiant one which does not disappoint.
Marie Benedict chooses the intriguing event of the real-life disappearance of the Dame of detective fiction, Agatha Christie, and undertakes to recreate the circumstances, players and motivations that may explain it, putting Christie's first marriage front and center.
The novelist builds an ingenious narrative structure in which two stories with different chronologies alternate up to the point where they catch up with each other, which coincides with the climax of the story. Very much in the style of Agatha Christie's writings and well justified by the construction of her narrative and the mystery elements it incorporates, Marie Benedict's ends up with a surprising revelation.
Although the revelation seems to spell out the characters' motivations too explicitly, it is true, under the pretext that the characters they were disclosed to were not capable of connecting the dots, and although some points of characterization seem to be drilled ad nauseum, attempted as they were at underlining the source of conflict and the narrators' unreliability, Marie Benedict pulls together a convincing, enticing narrative. All the while she pens a coherent vision of the times, in this case of the British upper middle class of the 1920s with its social conventions and expectations, which is always an essential part of what any reader of historical fiction hopes for.
Once you realize you have to read through to untangle the very cryptic beginning and position the multitude of characters introduced in the first two chapters, the read becomes captivating and it is hard to put down. The characters flesh out vividly, intriguingly, and just before it is too late to save Agatha from a rather conventional, boring portrait, she emerges … well, differently, and the narrative techniques chosen by the author are instrumental in achieving that.
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie is an enjoyable, fast read, satisfying the craving for the unexpected, which anything related to the name of Agatha Christie inevitably stirs. Recommended to lovers of the genres and anyone with a few good hours to spend on an engaging read.
techeditor
Good in the End
When I read historical fiction, I always wonder what is truth and what is fiction. But Marie Benedict doesn't make this clear in her Notes or Acknowledgment at the end of THE MYSTERY OF MRS. CHRISTIE. So this is all I know: Agatha Christie really did disappear for a few days and then suddenly show up with no explanation, she really did surf, and she did not really write the "manuscript" alluded to throughout this book.
In the chapters that make up half the book are the supposed manuscript that Christie left for her philandering husband. The main emphasis is on the duty Christie felt she owed her husband. Remember, this book takes place during the 1920s, when many felt that the proper role of wives was to subjugate themselves to their husbands. These descriptions got old and tiresome.
Until nearly the end, every other chapter is Christie's manuscript. Probably that is fiction. The other chapters take place during the disappearance and the hunt for her. This is when we hear about the husband's woes, and this too, I presume, is fiction. But Benedict says she did so much research for this book, some of this must be nonfiction.
My favorite parts of THE MYSTERY OF MRS. CHRISTIE are the last chapters, which are not her manuscript but just Christie speaking in first person. In the end, this book is both imaginative, after all, and enjoyable.
Becky_Haase
I hate timeline jumps
Agatha Christie, renowned writer of mysteries, disappeared for 11 days in 1926. Although a country wide search was made, no one was able to find her until she turned up on day eleven claiming amnesia. What REALLY happened – no one knows. Marie Benedict makes an interesting and entirely fictional novel of the mystery. The result is a good yarn that Agatha herself would approve.
My complaint - and it is a huge one – is the two different, and interwoven, timelines. I would just get involved in one timeline and the other would pop up with a different narrator and jump back or forward in time. When I finished the book, I knew why the author chose this conceit. However, there have been entirely too many novels recently with the same “jump around” timeline. It is annoying. Please stop.
The characters are well developed. The plot is clever. The inclusion of true events lends credence to the tale. But still…. Those annoying time leaps.
Book groups will have a field day trying to suss out the real story in their discussion.
Juli_B
Formal Dialogue Proved to be a Distraction.
Even well-written books fail to catch the interest of readers for various reasons: busy daily schedules, the wrong season for the setting, complicated dialogue, or the distraction of a worldwide pandemic! The latter seemed to overwhelm my ability to stay attentive to this otherwise interesting premise of a novel by respected author Marie Benedict. Despite years of consistent reading and participation in multiple book clubs, I've only recently read my first Agatha Christie novel: "And Then There Were None". Having enjoyed that selection and learned more information about the author herself, I was especially appreciative to receive an advanced copy of "The Mystery of Mrs. Christie" from BookBrowse for review. Kudos to Mrs. Benedict for crafting a believable tale to explain a truly mysterious episode from the life of such a famous fixture in literary circles. The formal English dialogue of the time period unfortunately dragged my interest away and I found myself skimming along to find the plot points more quickly than my reading eyes allowed. The alternating chapters did provide relief from the oft presented unhappiness of the Christie's marriage raising the obvious suspicion of possible malicious behavior by the central characters. My attention just did not stay focused enough on the carefully designed narrative. I honestly believe if I had found this book at a different time in my personal schedule, my opinion would have improved as I have thoroughly enjoyed other selections by this talented novelist, so I'll still recommend this creative telling to readers, especially if they are Agatha Christie fans. I dare say Dame Christie herself would approve!
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