(3/5 stars) When a famed mystery author seems to have become the victim of one of her own plots, her husband is left grappling with the ensuing chaos and wondering how in the world his life has reached this point.
As an Agatha Christie fanatic, I was thrilled to get my hands on Heather Terrell’s The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, a novel that explores Christie’s real, mysterious 11-day disappearance and purported case of memory loss. Terrell crafts a compelling explanation, underpinned by intimate details of Christie’s life and factual coverage of the incident.
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie is told from both Agatha’s perspective and that of her husband, Archibald Christie. Archie’s storyline, set in the present, centers around him dealing with the situation at hand: his wife has vanished, leaving their daughter and a trail of clues behind, and the media’s attention hones in on Archie and his relationship with a Miss Nancy Neele. Agatha’s storyline is set in the past, following the development and slow unraveling of their relationship as well as her ascent to fame. Both storylines converge in a dramatic reveal, which is satisfyingly unpredictable, checks out with the facts, and speaks to Terrell’s imaginative plot-crafting.
At the book’s outset, I found both Agatha and Archie’s characterization confusing. They were at times boring, like in their slightly cliche meet-cute, and at times strangely out-of-character and irrational. As the story progresses, however, both grow more nuanced and complex, revealing heartbreaking backstories that set the stage for their actions. Terrell was incredibly successful in getting me to hate the selfish, immature Archie (with a passion!!!) and sympathize with poor Agatha while still bringing vulnerability and moral gray areas to both their characters.
Though enthralling, the plot gives me one big cause for complaint: the pacing. According to my Kindle display, I slogged through the first 60% of the book before the plot really picked up and had me actually wondering what happened next. Till then, the story ambled along with ample exposition and a slow—but not nail-biting—build-up. Terrell’s dramatic climax was thus more rushed than artful. It’s possible that this was caused by Terrell’s desire to fit in as much of her research as she could, such as an out-of-place chapter about surfing which the author herself acknowledges wasn’t integral to the plot in the afterword. But the cramming-in of extraneous historical details, though adding to the reader’s picture of Agatha, stretched the plot out until it verged on boring.
Additionally, readers with no prior knowledge about Agatha Christie may feel lost at the beginning. It isn’t made explicit that one of the narrators is named Agatha until chapter five, and though I could pick it up from context, I would have appreciated more clarity.
Terrell’s writing is precise and descriptive, almost screenplay-like, with many lovely turns of phrase (“It was as if the weather had tired of being English and was trying on Italian citizenship for size, or perhaps Australian.”). Both Agatha and Archie’s inner voices are distinctive, with Terrell intentionally using more dated, British-sounding language to represent the novel’s setting. While for the most part her diction sounds natural, I occasionally felt that some awkward lines were written by an American trying to sound British, even before I knew that the book’s author, “Marie Benedict,” was actually Heather Terrell, an American author. Still, she is adept at infusing emotion into her writing, such as the helpless melancholy in lines like, “...time didn’t feel exactly linear when I was knee-deep in years gone by, and I’d quite forgotten the calendar, even this journey.”
Despite the plot’s strange pacing, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie provided a window into Agatha Christie’s life I never knew I needed. When I revisit her books again, it’ll be with a new appreciation of the hardships she faced and so brilliantly overcame. The Mystery of Mrs. Christie fits perfectly into Terrell’s body of work, which centers around the untold stories of historical women. She fearlessly shines an unforgiving spotlight on how gender roles impacted even the most successful of women and opened my eyes to another dimension in Agatha Christie’s writing.
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