Tom Wingo is an unemployed South Carolinian football coach whose internist wife is having an affair with a pompous cardiac man. She keeps the reader guessing: Which narrator is reliable? Who is the real villain?Ī compelling portrait of a marriage gone desperately sour.Ī flabby, fervid melodrama of a high-strung Southern family from Conroy ( The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline), whose penchant for overwriting once again obscures a genuine talent. Benedict concocts a worthy mystery of her own, as chapters alternate between Archie’s negotiation of the investigation and Agatha’s recounting of their relationship. His reluctance and arrogance work against him, and soon the police, the newspapers, the Christies’ staff, and even his daughter’s classmates suspect him of harming his wife. After discovering-and burning-a mysterious letter from Agatha, Archie is less than eager to help the police.
By the time Detective Chief Constable Kenward arrives, Agatha has already been missing for a day. In fact, he is away from home the day Agatha disappears. Nonetheless, Archie grows increasingly morose. Determined to keep her man happy, Agatha finds herself cooking elaborate meals, squelching her natural affections for their daughter (after all, Archie must always feel like the most important person in her life), and downplaying her own troubles, including her grief over her mother's death. While Agatha’s career flourishes after the war, Archie suffers setback after setback. Although the war keeps them apart, straining their early marriage, Agatha finds meaningful work as a nurse and dispensary assistant, jobs that teach her a lot about poisons, knowledge that helps shape her early short stories and novels. Defying her family’s expectations, Agatha consents to marry Archie rather than her intended, the reliable yet boring Reggie Lucy. When Agatha meets Archie on a dance floor in 1912, the obscure yet handsome pilot quickly sweeps her off her feet with his daring.
Was it a hoax? Or did her husband resort to foul play? In December 1926, mystery writer Agatha Christie really did disappear for 11 days.
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