The Mystery of Mrs. Christie

January 1913-November 1914

Mummy disapproves of her engagement, worried about the effect limited finances will have on the couple. Agatha’s father lost his fortune, and the difficulty led to his early death. Agatha and Archie search for a loophole to the dictate that Flying Corps pilots should not marry. Archie tells his mother, Peg, of the engagement privately, which makes Agatha nervous. Peg is kind to Agatha in person but disparages her modernity in private.

Preparation for the coming war, which Agatha does not believe will materialize, keeps Archie and Agatha busy and often apart, adding drama to their engagement. Agatha is caught up in the romance of it, though she regrets hurting Reggie.

On August 4, 1914, Britain joins World War I. Archie is sure he will be killed and speaks calmly about the possibility, which distresses Agatha. She becomes a wartime nurse and is impressed with her own tolerance for gore.

To Agatha’s surprise, Mummy does not disapprove of her wartime work. Agatha suspects Mummy hopes she will find someone different to marry while tending soldiers, but thinks it unlikely, given how grievous the injuries and how common death is among those she tends. In fact, Agatha feels even more attached to Archie and worries, as his first leave approaches, that he will have been changed beyond recognition by war.

December 4, 1926

Agatha’s car sits near a small lake, the Silent Pool, that Agatha found inspiring. The lake is the subject of a ghost story about a girl who drowned there, fleeing sexual advances of the legendary King John, a tale Archie considers “nonsense.” Archie thinks how the letter he burned instructed him to take part in any searches and notes that not doing so would be suspicious anyway. Archie identifies the car as the same type as Agatha’s but can’t confirm it is hers. A police officer comments on the car’s expense and Archie thinks of his own secondhand car.

As police officers check the car for clues, Archie asks Kenward how the car was found so quickly, and learns the headlights were left on. The police officers discover a fur coat and a bag containing toiletries and clothes inside the car. An officer suggests this evidence supports the report of Agatha’s weekend plans, but Kenward reminds him the clothes and car may not be Agatha’s. They puzzle over why the fur coat was left behind; the night prior had been cold. Archie doesn’t offer any thoughts. The letter forbade it. An officer finds Agatha’s driving license in the bag, prompting Kenward to announce the case will now be handled with the suspicion of foul play.

December 23-24, 1914

Agatha spends Christmas at Archie’s parents’ home. Agatha is unsettled to discover that she and Archie have both changed due to the war and doesn’t understand his casual way of discussing it. Archie knocks on her bedroom door, and they kiss, moving back toward the bed. When Agatha comments on the impropriety and what Peg will think, he insists they marry the next day, a contradiction to his previous day’s assertion that marrying in wartime was “selfish” and “wrong.” He now claims it is “the only sensible thing to do” (51). Peg is hysterical at the rush to wed, and Agatha is also privately hesitant. Archie’s eagerness overcomes her concerns. Bureaucratic concerns nearly prevent their wedding until they learn of a loophole that will allow them to be married that day. Peg refuses to serve as a second witness, causing another barrier. Agatha thinks this is perhaps for the best. Unexpectedly, however, she runs into an old friend. Archie sees this as a sign that the marriage is “meant to be” and the friend and Archie’s stepfather serve as witnesses. They marry in a hasty, informal ceremony.

December 5, 1926

Word spreads quickly of Agatha’s disappearance, and local villagers offer to help search. Archie reluctantly joins them. Volunteers walk through tall grasses with hands linked while Archie searches alone. He peers into the Silent Pool, even though Agatha’s car was not found very close to the water. No further clues have been found since the discovery of the car.

Archie worries about following the letter’s instructions and frets that Charlotte will let slip to the police what she saw. He resolves to invite Charlotte’s sister to Styles to distract both Charlotte and Rosalind.

Archie notes the almost cheerful energy of the searchers and thinks that he would not be searching himself if not for appearances. He doesn’t understand why these people are taking time to search for a woman they don’t know. He is alarmed when he hears one of the police officers indiscreetly gossiping about the Jameses’ home; he wishes to keep the Jameses and Nancy out of the intrigue. The night prior he had called them and agreed not to make contact until the situation was resolved, which he now regrets, wishing for their familiarity. As night falls, Kenward says he thinks it unlikely they will find Agatha wandering nearby, perhaps confused by her accident, and scrutinizes Archie for a reaction. A police officer approaches, announcing there has been a report of a woman matching Agatha’s description in Albury, a nearby village.

October 14, 1916

Two years after her marriage, Agatha wanders the lanes near Ashfield, wondering at the changes war has wrought and how life might have been different if she had married Reggie. Archie is still at war, and Agatha worries for him constantly. Being at Ashfield makes her feel a strong connection to her childhood. Agatha entertains her mother and grandmother with a dramatized recounting of the “poisons” she distributes at the dispensary as part of her war efforts. Agatha’s grandmother is actually Agatha’s great-aunt who adopted Agatha’s mother and became known as “Auntie-Grannie.” Though Agatha’s mother ended up better off for being adopted and ended up marrying Auntie-Grannie’s stepson, she harbors feelings of abandonment that her mother gave her up. Agatha tells a story about noticing the pharmacist make a dangerous error and how she knocked over the tray to both save the man’s pride and stop the toxic suppositories from being sold. Mummy and Auntie-Grannie applaud her cleverness. Agatha confides that the pharmacist carries around a deadly dose of curare, a poison, to “feel powerful,” which all three women find disturbing.

Agatha thinks how hard she studied for her knowledge of medicines and poisons, and to pass the assistants’ exam, and wonders why she’s hesitant to tell Mummy and Auntie-Grannie that she’s written a detective novel during her downtime at the dispensary, even though they’ve championed all her previous writing efforts. She doesn’t wish her mother to know that sibling rivalry with Madge motivated the endeavor.

Agatha prepares to pack, as she is due to meet Archie for his leave, which has been rescheduled several times, the following day. She frets about Archie’s recent poor mood, which has left him angry and sad, and about leaving her elderly relatives alone, but they assure her they will be fine. Mummy scolds Agatha, telling her, “A gentleman cannot be left alone for too long” (59).

December 5, 1926

Archie asks Kenward why he is sending Agatha’s picture to newspapers and police stations across England, fretting that her disappearance will become a “public spectacle,” while inwardly fuming that Kenward seems to appear to enjoy having something over a man of a higher class than he. Kenward urges calm, irritating Archie further. He likens this experience to past feelings about Agatha, in which her insistence on talking to him and disturbing his peace would infuriate him. He worries his anger does not contribute to his “concerned husband” image.

Archie thinks that if Agatha’s disappearance becomes public, his secrets (meaning his affair with Nancy Neele) will be revealed, but Kenward says the matter cannot remain private and asks why Archie is so reluctant to disseminate information. Archie ignores the question, instead asking what Kenward has learned from Archie’s staff. Kenward reports that Agatha kept to usual activities on the Friday she disappeared, though he drops in that he knows Archie and Agatha argued—which Archie has been trying to pass off as having casually “spoken”—Friday morning. Kenward says this argument may have been the inciting incident for the disappearance.

Archie attempts to downplay the argument about where the Christies would spend their weekends—Agatha wished for Archie to join her in Yorkshire, while he wished to go to the Jameses’—but the staff has reported they were “screaming” at each other. A maid heard glass breaking and later found Agatha crying with cuts on her hands and legs from the broken china and summoned Charlotte to help. Archie feels alienated from this recounting, as if the fight happened to someone else. Archie claims the staff is exaggerating and insists the argument had nothing to do with Agatha’s disappearance. Kenward tells him that due to Styles’s location between two counties, the disappearance will be overseen by two police forces.

October 18, 1916

Agatha and Archie reunite in an inn and Agatha feels foolish for questioning his mental state. Archie confesses that, due to trouble with his sinuses, he has been grounded from flying. He expects Agatha to be disappointed, but she’s overjoyed that he will be safer now. They make mutual declarations that they are “everything” to one another and kiss passionately.

Later, they walk in the woods and impulsively follow a sign labeled “To No-Man’s-Land” while Archie praises Agatha’s adventurousness. They find an orchard and ask to purchase some apples from the woman who owns it. She refuses payment; she sees Archie’s uniform and says her son was also air force, killed in the war. Her story spoils the Christies’ mood.

Agatha tells Archie she’s written a novel and explains the plot. Archie laughs, shocked that his “sweet wife” would write a murder mystery. She asks if he will read it, to see if he can solve the mystery, and Archie agrees. The novel is called The Mysterious Affair at Styles (which references Christie’s 1920 debut), the same name as their home in the “Disappearance” sections.

December 6, 1926

Archie is calmer the next day until he sees a large headline announcing Agatha’s disappearance. He frets, thinking the story has circulated so quickly due to Kenward’s dislike. A severe headache grips him, causing him to flash back to the war. Peg calls, asking if Archie has seen the headlines; every newspaper is reporting on Agatha’s disappearance. He worries that this scrutiny will end up revealing his affair with Nancy.

In the entryway, he encounters Charlotte, who calls out to him, and Rosalind. There are 20 reporters on the front lawn, making it unsafe to take Rosalind to school. He intends to tell them to leave, no matter how it makes him appear, but when he sees the gathering outside, the magnitude of the public interest takes him aback.

February 2, 1919

Postwar Archie is a very different man. Agatha puzzles over what can replace his passion for flying, recalling her mother’s instruction that husbands need “attention and management.” She considers it her duty to improve his depression and tries to be the perfect wife in pursuit of this goal. She struggles, however, with domestic tasks as she was trained in how to manage staff rather than carry out this work herself. Mrs. Woods, a kind but intrusive neighbor, often helps. Still, domestic work doesn’t fill the time Archie is at work. After receiving several rejections from publishers of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, she has not tried writing again.

Agatha is optimistic that her new pregnancy will improve Archie’s mood, but when she tells him she’s expecting, he is angry. He yells that the baby will steal Agatha’s focus from him, prompting her to promise that he will “forever be [her] focus” (75).

December 6, 1926

Archie arrives at Scotland Yard with his solicitor, William Perkins. He isn’t certain if coming here is a good choice, but he wishes the investigation to be out of the hands of Kenward, who Archie still believes dislikes him intensely. As he enters the building for his meeting with Commander Reynolds, Archie worries that the officers are watching him, and that the commander will “see right through him” (77). Archie asks Reynolds for “oversight” of the rural police forces, but Reynolds says it would be illegal for Scotland Yard to intervene. Reynolds, apparently suspicious, asks why Archie doesn’t want the disappearance publicized, and, unlike when Kenward asked, Archie can’t ignore him. He cites Rosalind’s distress at the press coverage, but Reynolds retorts that certainly the disappearance itself is more distressing to a child. Reynolds says he will not inform Kenward of Archie’s visit.

August 1919-January 1920

Agatha returns to Ashfield for her delivery, where the kind attentions of Mummy, Auntie-Grannie, and a hired nurse allow her to grow excited for her child. Though delighted by baby Rosalind, Agatha reminds herself that she has promised her whole devotion to Archie. She turns the bulk of Rosalind’s care over to the nurse, even though she longs for more time with her daughter. Upon her return to London, Agatha locates a flat that will allow Rosalind and her full-time nurse, Jessie Swannell, to live largely separately from Archie and Agatha. Agatha dedicates herself to creating a perfect life for Archie, unchanged by Rosalind’s arrival. She begins to feel slight discontent.

Agatha receives a letter from the Bodley Head Publishers, asking for a meeting about The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which she had submitted two years prior. She is at first exuberant, then self-conscious after discovering that her old clothes don’t fit post-pregnancy. She is grateful that she didn’t tell Archie about the letter, which makes her sad; she would have been excited to tell the “old Archie.”

John Lane, the publisher at Bodley Head, tells Agatha he would like to publish her book as a serial, pending some edits, which Agatha is happy to make. He offers her a contract, and though Agatha briefly wonders if she should consult Archie, she ultimately signs.