subject: The Mysterious Disappearance Of Agatha Christie [print this page] One of the favorite genres of the early pulp fiction magazine writers of the 1930s and 1940s the mystery genre. To writers like Dashiell Hammett, Walter B. Gibson and L. Ron Hubbard, whodunit could be as important as howdunit, as heroes tried to uncover the truth behind murders, robberies, missing loot, kidnappings, and all manner of crimes. Disappearances were always fascinating subjects, and the pulp authors of the day needed look no farther than the headlines for inspiration. In fact, the Queen of Mystery herself, Agatha Christie, vanished for eleven days in late 1926.
The tale has all the classic elements of a pulp mystery. Married with a young daughter, Christie was an established author at the time of her disappearance. In fact, her sixth novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, had been released and was popular with the public.
But all was not well in the life of the famous novelist. Earlier in the year her mother had passed away after a severe case of bronchitis. Christie's husband Archie had been out of the country when his mother-in-law fell ill, and having a distaste for "illness, death and trouble," headed for London rather than stay and help his wife cope with settling her mother's estate.
That wasn't all. Archie was straying, and had demanded a divorce so that he could be with his flame, one Nancy Neele. He did come back to their home, Styles (the name is the same as the English country house in the title of Christie's first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles), for an attempt at reconciliation, but that was a disaster and Christie found it difficult to focus on writing her next book. The situation deteriorated as the year progressed, and finally, on December 3, Archie left her-during the day when she was away from the house. Christie came home to find him gone.
At 9:45 that night, with a small packed bag, Christie herself left the house in her green Morris Cowley after kissing her daughter goodnight. She had apparently had no plans before to go anywhere. The car was found abandoned the next day in Surrey, with her still-packed suitcase, her fur coat and an expired driver's license inside.
The Surrey police issued a missing persons report and her disappearance made international headlines. It was said that more than 15,000 searchers combed the countryside looking for her, many of them volunteers. Divers checked out nearby bodies of water. Bloodhounds tracked her scent. Even pilots were sent out to look for signs of the missing author from the air. And, of course, a reward was offered for information leading to her recovery.
Rumors of suicide swirled even as suspicious eyes were cast on her husband, a former fighter pilot in WWI. After all, it was known that Archie had been unfaithful and that the two were desperately unhappy; perhaps foul play was responsible for her disappearance. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle took one of Christie's gloves to a medium-by then, of course, the creator of Sherlock Holmes was a firm believer in mediumship-and Dorothy L. Sayers, another famous mystery writer of the period, went to the scene of Christie's disappearance. (Sayers would later use the setting in one of her own novels.)
For eleven days the world wondered what had become of Christie. Then the mystery was solved-sort of-in the most mundane way possible. She was found staying in the Hydropathic Hotel (now the Old Swan), a spa hotel in Harrogate, North Yorkshire-registered under the name of Mrs. Teresa Neele and claiming to be from Cape Town, South Africa. She seemed to be suffering from amnesia or delusion, and indeed the mystery was never satisfactorily resolved.
Today theories still vie with one another to explain the mystery writer's disappearance. Was she trying to get back at Archie for his unfaithfulness? Was she suffering from amnesia-or a fugue state, as the author of a book on the event proposes? Or was it all a publicity stunt to promote her latest book? Books, reports and the Internet all carry enough clues and red herrings to support any and all of these theories, and possibly more. The truth may never be known. And the puzzle continues to beguile lovers of mystery-as the best mysteries do.
