Coinciding with the centenary of the disappearance of the Queen of Crime, Laura Manzanera publishes Who Has Killed Agatha Christie?, a novel in which she fictionalizes what happened to the famous writer during the eleven days she was missing.
What we know is that on December 3, 1926 the author left home after an argument with her husband Archibald Christie. The next day her car was found along with her driving license and clothes, but not a single clue regarding the whereabouts of its owner. By then Agatha Christie already enjoyed fame, and her disappearance triggered a broad search operation in which Arthur Conan Doyle even participated. It took eleven days for the author to be located in a hotel where she had registered under a false name.
She said she suffered amnesia, and it was the only time she spoke of the matter. This incident is not even mentioned in her autobiography. As far as the writer is concerned, it never happened.
From these events, Laura Manzanera writes a novel in which Agatha Christie becomes the investigator of her own mystery in collaboration with Scotland Yard. To achieve this, she creates “The Coal Killer,” a character that could have been the product of Christie’s imagination—a sensation that grows as we enjoy a light novel that follows the formal guidelines of her celebrated protagonist. Manzanera presents us with a London full of contrasts; the shadow of the Great War meets the Great Strike, and the slums, misery, and ghosts roam freely among the city’s sewers. Opposite them stands the life of those who never reach the underworld, those who live with servants and whose distance from the real world feels as disturbing as it is discreetly hostile. In this context, and while Archibald confesses his infidelity and Agatha contemplates revenge, the police knock on the writer’s door: they need her mind, which at that moment was crafting Poirot, to attempt to solve the murder of a German. From there, the author continues to cling to the few known facts about that life-gap and blends them with plausible fiction that succeeds in recreating a novel that reads as a tribute not only to Agatha Christie but also to all the women of that era.
At a time when Agatha Christie is fashionable and we find adaptations, sequels, and tributes, Who Has Killed Agatha Christie? stands out as a light novel perfect for fans of the genre that also sows a small doubt: what if it wasn’t amnesia, nor a vendetta to expose her husband? After all, it is well known that Arthur Conan Doyle helped solve real crimes on more than one occasion. No one can assure us that Agatha Christie never collaborated.
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Author: Laura Manzanera. Title: Who Has Killed Agatha Christie? Publisher: Versátil. Sales channel: All Your Books.