Product Description

On 3 December 1926 the celebrated crime writer Agatha Christie disappeared from her home in Berkshire, leaving her car abandoned off the road down a Surrey hill, to the anxiety of her friends and family and the intense speculation of the rest of the world. The story was to become front-page news until finally she turned up in mysterious circumstances at a Harrogate spa eleven days later, claiming to be the victim of amnesia caused by a car crash. At the hotel she had checked in under another name. What were the facts surrounding the case? To this day none of her biographers has come up with conclusive evidence as to where Agatha got to and whether her memory loss was genuine.

There was even speculation during her lifetime that her disappearance may have been a publicity stunt that got out of hand. Few have examined exhaustively her marital problems and personal relationships.

This fascinating new biography concentrates on this central mystery of the writer's life, one that was to have a profound effect on her later behaviour and an episode to which she was ever afterwards profoundly anxious to avoid any allusion. In it Jared Cade has uncovered a wealth of new evidence including firsthand accounts by intimate contemporaries that make it apparent why Agatha disappeared, what she did in the first few days of her disappearance, the intense public interest and, not least, the aftermath in the days and years after she reappeared. The author also puts Christie's life in context in terms of the mystery writer's creative output, demonstrating clearly the parallels between life and art.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #109792 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 258 pages

Review
"The kind of extended footnote that might well delight, with its attention to detail and Cade's analysis of how Christie wove bits of her own story into her subsequent fictions."

Harpers & Queen
'A gripping detective story'

From the Author
The definitive, ground-breaking biography.
Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days is the definitive, ground-breaking biography by Jared Cade that reveals the solution once and for all to the most baffling incident in the renowned detective novelist's life. On 3 December 1926 Agatha Christie disapeared from her home Styles, in Sunningdale, Berkshire, England, leaving her car abandoned off the road down a Surrey hill, to the anxiety of her family and friends and the intense speculation of the rest of the world. After a massive nation-wide search she was found 11 days later at the Harrogate Hydro, now the Old Swan Hotel, in Harrogate, Yorkshire. Until now no previous biographer has been able to state how she got to Harrogate or whether her memory lose was genuine. When she died fifty years later, on 12 January 1976, it seemed as if she had taken her secret with her to the grave. Many of her fans from around the world who eagerly awaited a publication the publication of her posthumous memoirs in 1977 were disapointed to find that there was no reference whatsoever to the disappearance. Jared Cade, a life-long fan, was so highly intrigued by the incident that he embarked on a pilgrimage six years ago to find out the truth. In a feat worthy of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, he traced witnesses from the disappearance who were still alive, he examined the evidence and discovered a cover-up had been instigated at the time by the novelist's first husband and certain adults close to her in her private life. Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days is the first biography to explain what really happened: intimate relatives of Agatha Christie have broken a life-long silence to reveal for the first time how she staged the disappearance with the help of a co-conspirator, what she did in the days that followed and how it all went terribly wrong. This definitive biography has been read and endorsed by relatives of Agatha Christie prior to publication and contains a fascinating wealth of new facts about the most popular novelist in history, whose books have sold a staggering one billion copies in the English language and a further billion in 44 foreign languages. It is the heart-warming story of Agatha's life-long friendship with her ally from the disappearance; the cryptic inscriptions she penned in the fly-leaves of her friend's copies of her detective novels and how their loyalty and affection for one another sustained them through many periods of adversity before and after the disappearance. Author Jared Cade also reveals the many parallels between the detective novelist's life and her art. The book is illustrated with many never before seen photographs from family albums.

Customer Reviews

Revealing the mystery writer's mystery.
Revealing the mystery writer’s mystery. Fame and wide acclaim came to Agatha Christie in 1926 when “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” was published. In the same year, however, her disappearance and the eleven-day search for her attracted even more attention. Subsequently in interviews and in her own autobiography, Agatha Christie refused to explain or refer to the incident. It was inferred that the breakdown of her first marriage had been one aspect of the mystery, and her reluctance to refer to anything so painful was respected.

Since her death, she has been the subject of several biographies. None that I have read, even that of her second husband, Sir Max Mellowan, provides a satisfactory motivation or time table for the eleven missing days in 1926.

It seems remarkable that a young writer from the smallest state in Australia should be the one to adequately research the subject and to have access to the best informants. Jared Cade knows Agatha Christie’s novels, plays, poetry and short sories well, and demonstrates how insights into this major crisis in Agatha Christie’s life reside in them. His theories are sound, his rebuttal of false and misleading explanations is strong, and his judgments - even of Dame Agatha herself – are balanced.

Interest in what happened to the world’ best-selling author back in 1926 may no longer be strong, but it is good to read something that at last sets the record straight. It is, moreover, a fascinating and focussed biography of someone who tried to keep herself away from public scrutiny. I like the compliment paid to the author by his principal informants, descendants of Agatha Christie’s best friend: "This is the only biography that tells Agatha's life as it really was. Your insight into her life and personality is unsurpassed."

The lady vanishes.
At last! Someone has got to the bottom of one of the most intriguing British mysteries of the 20th century. Just what did happen to the first lady of crime fiction in December 1926? I'm certainly not going to spoil things for you by letting the cat out of the bag, suffice it to say that the truth (as is often the way) is quite startlingly simple. The author finally tracks down Dame Agatha during her 11 days of oblivion, and also reveals why she was haunted by the disappearance for the rest of her life, and which made her so publicity shy when she became the most famous author in the world.

He also reveals that her second marriage, to Max Mallowan, was far from being the contented haven after a stormy sea that we had previously been led to suppose, and that she never stopped carrying a torch for Archie. This isn't muck-raking, or digging up old ghosts, as the author clearly has a lot of respect for Dame Agatha. It is just a shame that, yet again, someone who brought so much pleasure to people over many years, knew little peace herself. A must-read for all Christie-ites.

One of the most important biographies ever written about her
This wonderful biography, which is now the subject of a fantastic BBC Television documentary, is officially endorsed by relatives from the Watts side of Christie's family, who have broken decades of silence to reveal the astonishing truth of what really happened when she disappeared in 1926 with the help of an accomplice. These relatives refused to co-operate with authorised biographer Janet Morgan and instead gave Jared Cade sole access to their own valuable family documents, revealing the secret truth about the subsequent family cover-up of the disappearance, her brother Monty's personal life and her second marriage.Other Christie biographers such as Charles Osborne, Gwen Robyns and Robert Barnard have given it the thumbs up. Jared Cade has filled in the missing blanks from Christie's life that Janet Morgan and other biographers either over-looked or ignored. A terrific book that all Christie devotees will want to buy. This is a MUST for any university curriculum. It is impossible to praise this book highly enough. Scholars of Christie finally have reason to rejoice !