With works like ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ and ‘The Mystery of the Blue Train,’ Agatha Christie was a mystery novelist who was among the world’s best-selling authors.

Just like John Grisham has been writing blockbuster novels, and the legendary Mark Twain, and Michael Peterson, Agatha Christie herself is a legend and is no different. 

She is regarded as one of history’s most well-known authors. Only William Shakespeare’s book sales have surpassed hers, with over four billion copies sold worldwide.

Who was Agatha Christie?

Born as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller in Torquay, Devon, in the southwest of England, on September 15, 1890, Christie was homeschooled. 

She spent much of her childhood with her parents, dogs, and imaginary pals.

Christie began writing mystery literature while working at a hospital as a nurse during World War I.  Her works have been translated into over a hundred languages.

Early Life of Agatha Christie

Agatha’s father died of a heart attack when she was eleven, and she and her mother had to relocate since they couldn’t afford it. 

Agatha was sent to boarding schools at the age of twelve, where she was meant to learn piano and song.

Christie loved role-playing fantasy games and inventing characters, so she traveled to Paris at the age of 16 to study singing and piano. 

Christie’s social life grew as she participated in country house parties, horseback riding, hunting, dancing, and roller skating. Christie stated of herself in 1946: “Crowds, loud noises, gramophones, and movie theatres are one of my pet peeves. I dislike the taste of alcohol and do not like smoking. I like the sun, sea, flowers, traveling, strange foods, sports, concerts, theatres, pianos, and embroidery.”

Relationship

She had four short-lived romances and was engaged to another. Archibald “Archie” Christie was introduced to her during a ball in October 1912. The pair fell in love right away.

Archie proposed to Agatha three months after their initial encounter, and she accepted. She married Colonel Archibald Christie, a Royal Flying Corps pilot, in 1914 and began working as a nurse during World War I.

From Anonymity to Prominence

She had six consecutive disappointments as a writer, but that changed in 1920 when The Mysterious Affair at Styles, starring detective Hercule Poirot, was published.

Hercule Poirot, a Belgian investigator who debuted in a series of Agatha Christie books and was quirky and egotistic, returned in around 25 novels and several short tales. With this fictitious persona, she became well-known.

Agatha’s Struggles

Some critics claim that Agatha’s desire to keep a tight grip on her finances caused difficulties in her marriage to Archie. The couple battled on the evening of December 3, 1926, and Archie exited their residence to spend a few days with friends, presumably his mistress.

 Agatha is subsequently believed to have entrusted her daughter with the maid and walked away later that evening, launching one of the most enduring mysteries she had ever devised.

So even though he had an affair with Nancy Neale, his 25-year-old mistress cum secretary. Christie’s mother passed away in 1926, prompting her husband, Colonel Archibald Christie, to file for divorce.

Curious Mystery of Agatha Christie’s Disappearance

Archie became furious and went to spend the night with his mistress on Friday, December 3rd, 1926. Archie then reported his wife missing the following morning of the same day.

Agatha Christie, an English mystery fiction writer, has gone from her Berkshire residence. It was the ideal sensational yarn, complete with all the ingredients of one of Christie’s famous mysteries.

Agatha Christie rose from her chair and mounted the stairs of her Berkshire house soon after 9.30 p.m. on Friday, December 3, 1926. She kissed her sleeping seven-year-old daughter Rosalind goodbye and returned downstairs.

Agatha then hopped into her car, Morris Cowley, and drove away into midnight. Agatha Christie vanished on December 4th, 1926. Archie reported his wife disappeared the next day.

 She was nowhere to be seen in their house. She wasn’t seen for another 11 days. 

When Archie reported her missing, the police began hunting for her. Her car, abandoned atop a chalk quarry, with her license and clothing inside, was discovered after a brief search.

The Silent Pool, a natural spring near the automobile scene of the crash, was said to be the site of the death of two young children.

Some media speculated that the author had drowned herself on purpose. Her disappearance would set off one of the most massive manhunts in history. For the first time, aircraft were used to assist in the hunt.

The public response was very negative at the time, with many suspecting a publicity ploy or an attempt to frame her spouse for killing. Her corpse, however, was not to be located, and suicide appeared implausible, given her career prospects had never been brighter.

Archie Christie and his mistress Nancy Neale were both accused of abducting Agatha, triggering a significant search involving thousands of police officers and passionate volunteers.

Arthur Conan Doyle, a master occultist, sought to solve the puzzle with his psychic abilities. In the hopes of getting answers, he presented one of Christie’s gloves to this well medium. Authorities found her at a Harrogate hotel a few days later.

When Agatha was approached by Archie at the hotel, eyewitnesses observed a general air of bewilderment and little familiarity for the person she had been wedded to for over 12 years.

The information had gone throughout the world by the second week of the investigation. The New York Times even featured it on the main page. Christie was unable to offer any information on what had occurred. She couldn’t recall anything.

Agatha’s Mental Health was Challenged

Archie Christie said at the time that his wife was struggling from amnesia and a potential concussion, which was later confirmed by two physicians.

Her spouse said that the automobile accident had caused her to lose all recollection. But, according to writer Andrew Norman, the author might have been in a ‘fugue’ condition, or, to put it another way, a psychogenic trance. It’s a very uncommon illness caused by trauma or despair.

Agatha’s Second Marriage

Christie would heal, eventually divorcing Archibald in 1928. Agatha met and married her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, in 1930. 

He accompanied Agatha on several of his trips, where her interest in archaeology and ancient Egypt blossomed.

She later married Max Mallowan, an archaeological professor. Christie published more than 70 mystery novels as well as short stories in her final years. Christie’s Health began to deteriorate between 1971 and 1974, yet she kept writing her detective stories.

Christie died quietly at her home in Winterbrook House on January 12, 1976, at the age of 85, after authoring numerous novels, including a biography about herself.

In 2000, John Ezard, a journalist, interviewed the daughter of Christie’s sister-in-law and friend, Nan Watts, for the Guardian newspaper.

She also stated that while in the presence of her mother and Christie, she discovered the truth about what occurred when she was a youngster.

“She then just sat there in her hotel room, hiding away…But she had signed the guests’ register in the name Neele – the surname of her husband’s lover…It was carefully orchestrated…She wanted Archie back…She wanted to give him a shock…If she had had amnesia she would not have signed the register in the other woman’s name…My mother helped her because she was distraught. I think she went to my mother because she had been through a divorce. [Mrs. Christie] never did it for publicity. That was the last thing she would have thought of. She was very upset and shocked – it all went rather wrong.”

Final Verdict

In this piece by John Ezard, he mentions that her first wedding ring and Mr. Christie’s letters were discovered in her writing case after her death in 1976.

Even Hercule Poirot would have struggled to unravel the puzzle left by Agatha Christie. As a result, the most enthralling of all Christie’s stories remain a mystery!