By Lois Winston
I recently read The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, an historical novel woven around the eleven-day disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1926. I’ve always been fascinating by this event which has kept both professional and amateur sleuths guessing for years.At approximately 9:45pm Friday, December 3, 1926, Agatha Christie kissed her sleeping daughter, then drove off alone in her car. The car was later found abandoned with no sign of Christie. Some believed she’d drowned in a pond near the site where her car was found. Others thought the disappearance was a publicity stunt. Some clues pointed in the direction of murder, accusing her unfaithful husband Archie Christie.
Christie was eventually found eleven days later staying at a spa hotel under an assumed name. Speculation ran the gamut of a head injury from a car accident or that she had orchestrated the entire episode to thwart her husband’s plans to spend the weekend with his mistress. In 2006 Andrew Norman, a doctor and Christie biographer, suggested that Christie had been in a fugue state brought about by trauma or depression.
Now here’s the amazing coincidence:
Nearly seven months earlier on May 18, 1926, another celebrity, Aimee Semple McPherson, went for a swim on a California beach and disappeared. McPherson was a Pentecostal evangelist, famous for using modern technology to spread her religious message worldwide.
McPherson was first assumed drowned. Her mother preached the sermon she was supposed to deliver the evening of her disappearance and told congregants, “Sister is with Jesus.” Upton Sinclair wrote a poem to commemorate the tragedy. Parishioners held round-the-clock seaside vigils. Her disappearance sparked a media frenzy.
A month after Aimee disappeared, her mother received a ransom note demanding a half million dollars and was told if she didn’t pay, Aimee would be sold into white slavery. Thinking the note was a hoax, she threw it out. Shortly after, Aimee stumbled out of the desert into a Mexican town. She claimed she’d been kidnapped, drugged, and tortured. She’d managed to escape her captors and walk half a day through the desert.
However, her story was full of holes. There was speculation she had run off with Kenneth Ormiston, her married lover. Witnesses claimed to have seen them in Carmel, California during the time Aimee was supposedly being held in Mexico. Some suggest she’d gone off to have an abortion or plastic surgery or had orchestrated the disappearance as a publicity stunt.
Christie and McPherson were born weeks apart in 1890. Their disappearances occurred months apart. Did Aimee’s disappearance influence Agatha Christie? Aimee Semple McPherson died in 1944. Agatha Christie died in 1976. Neither mystery was ever solved.
One of the hardest mysteries to write is the locked-room mystery. Dame Agatha was a master of that format. For years I wrestled with whether I could pull off a locked-room mystery. I finally decided to try writing one. A Sew Deadly Cruise, the ninth Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, was released in 2020 and is set on…wait for it…a cruise ship. I was so happy with the results that when it came time to write the next book in the series, I again decided on a locked-room format. Stitch, Bake, Die! came out this past October and takes place at a conference during a snow storm.
In The Mystery of Mrs. Christie author Marie Benedict posits an interesting theory about Christie’s disappearance. Is it anywhere near the truth of what really happened? We’ll never know. Dame Agatha refused to speak of the episode for the remainder of her life and made not a single mention of those eleven days in her autobiography.
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie
Christie's disappearance was quite a story. I'd not heard of McPherson's. I read somewhere that after Christe died, the daughter of Christie's friend revealed that it was a hoax. But who knows. Life imitates art or is it the other way around. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteThere's a new novel out called The Christie Affair, by Nina de Gramont. It's narrated by Archie Christie's lover, which is either a brilliant or a disastrous move by the author. I haven't read far enough to make up my mind but I was not instinctively draw to the narrator. The parallel with McPherson is fascinating--thanks for pairing up the two.
ReplyDeleteKathleen, I don't know what would have been gained by Christie creating a hoax. She was already a well-known, successful author. So it wouldn't have been to drum up sales. Did the friend's daughter offer any proof?
ReplyDeleteJudy, I haven't seen that one. Personally, I wouldn't want to read a book that justifies "the other woman."
I've read the Christie account and can honestly say, I could believe the fugue theory. I haven't before heard of McPherson, yet in the reading, my brain yelled "liar". Hmm, I wonder.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Fascinating.
ReplyDeleteDonnarae, I don't buy into the fugue theory. Archie cheated on Agatha throughout their marriage. I think she'd finally reached the end of her rope and planned the entire episode to get even with him for all the heartache he'd caused her. Hell has no fury like a woman scorned.
ReplyDeleteAlso, keep in mind it was quite common back then to blame a woman's "delicate constitution" on all sorts of behaviors and illnesses. So much easier than actually treating women like intelligent human beings equal to men. Had a man gone missing for 11 days and was then found staying at a spa hotel under an assumed name, no one would suggest he had suffered from a fugue state. Only a man would have come up with that theory.
Judy, glad you enjoyed the post!