The Mystery of Mrs. Christie is still somewhat a mystery. Though Marie Benedict has taken all the historical material and newspaper clippings of the time, and created a fascinating interpretation of the occurrence, there are still questions left unanswered in the end.
I have read Agatha Christie's writings about her life and biographies about her. I have watched films about her disappearance and there is always a question at the end of what the real reason was for her disappearance. Benedict has not found any new answer, but she has written an interesting interpretation of the situation that is slightly different. Even knowing the story this was an entertaining interpretation.
Bringing us into Agatha Miller's life at the age of marriage, she is living with her mother and attending all the dances and coming out parties with her friends. Marriage is the ultimate goal for girls in her social class. At a one such visit for a party, she meets Archie Christie, a young pilot on leave from army who she finds intriguing. Their romance is conducted through the war years and though her mother does not endorse her relationship they marry.
The reader gets an inside look at the everyday intimacy of Agatha and Archie's marital life. A rocky relationship that suffers through the ideas of how a marriage should work at that time. Agatha's mother believes that to keep her marriage working Agatha should focus solely on Archie's happiness to the exclusion of other relationships. She tries very hard to make him happy. But possibly his own personal demons and the results of his war experience turn Archie into a different person than the man she thought she married.
Again Marie Benedict has brought us a personal inside view of the woman she has focused her novel on. Such a great way to dive inside the situations and personal lives of all these great icons of history.
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