The Mystery of Mrs. Christie and The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Historical novel The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict delves into the mysterious, real-life disappearance of Agatha Christie. I compare this novel to Christie’s first book The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It's been over 100 years since the mystery queen penned her first book but it is a page turner.

Books and Resources discussed:
The Red Fern Book Review Spring Book Box
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont
Mindful of Murder by Susan Juby
CODA (2021), movie
Mystic Pizza (1988), movie
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Curtain by Agatha Christie
Agatha (1979), movie
The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

Follow Red Fern Book Review:
Instagram: @redfernbookreview
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redfernbookreview/
Newsletter: https://www.redfernbookreview.com/newsletter
Book Subscription Box: The Red Fern Book Review Spring Book Box


Affiliate Links
I participate in affiliate marketing programs where I receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on my website. Your cost remains unchanged. Thank you for supporting Red Fern Book Review by clicking on these links to make your purchases!

Follow Red Fern Book Review:

Website and to leave a voicemail: https://www.redfernbookreview.com
Instagram: @redfernbookreview
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redfernbookreview/
Newsletter: https://www.redfernbookreview.com/newsletter

Transcript

Amy Mair: 0:13

Hello, welcome back to the red phone book. I'm your host. And today, I have a very mysterious episode in store for you. We are going to devote this episode to the Queen of mystery writing, Agatha Christie. And we're going to look at two books, actually three. And I'll explain why. The first book we're going to look at is the mystery of Mrs. Christie and historical novel by Marie Benedict, about the 11 days that Agatha Christie actually went missing in the 1920s. And then I'm going to jump over and look at the mysterious affair at styles, which is referred to and talked about, in the mystery of Mrs. Christie. And that is Agatha Christie's very first book. So I'm going to compare and contrast the two of those. And I have to mention the Christie affair, which actually I found out about because a friend accidentally picked that book up, and it's out right now as well. And it's by author by author Nina de Clermont. And it is also about the lesson days when Agatha Christie went Miss missing. And in addition to that, I'm going to mention a movie that I'm just loving. And I also have a very special announcement to make. So with that, I wanted to start with my special announcement. I'm super excited, I have teamed up with independent bookseller book warehouse, for those of you in Vancouver, will know, it's an excellent independent bookstore. It's a community place, there's several locations around town. And it's the kind of store where you get lost in the aisles. And my very favorite thing, which they still do, is they have handwritten recommendations from employees. I like it because it's it's a bit of a throwback to before computers and iPhones and that kind of thing. And also a kind of signals that are does signal that the employees actually are book lovers themselves. So what we're doing is we're going to be producing a book box, it's going to be called the Red Fern book review, spring book box, it's going to include a copy of a book that I selected, it's a cozy mystery called mindful of murder. And at the end of this episode, I'll talk a bit more about that book. And it's by award winning Vancouver Island writer Susan GB, and there'll be several Oh, and the book will be signed by the author, there's going to be a book review, a tote bag, a notepad and a bookmark. And that will retail for $32. And there's also an option for a two by three seasonal book boxes for$90. So there's a bit of a savings there. And I'll talk a little bit more about how to order the book, there's, you can order now through a special link on their website. And they'll be I will put that online, and also in the show notes. Now to get started. The first thing I want to do is I want to talk about a movie that I am loving. And it's interesting because during this time, I think a lot of things can get missed. And this movie is up for Best Picture of the Year. And I didn't know because I haven't really been going to the movies. I've just started going to movies like a lot of you. So I wanted to put this on your radar if you don't already know about it. And this movie is called Kota. And it's an acronym that stands for children of deaf adults. And it's a charming movie starring Amelia Jones, who's actually a British actress. And you'll find that quite surprising because in this movie, she plays a New England 17 year old New England teenager who lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts, which is a fishing town. And so she's pretty typical and a lot of different ways. She's super annoyed by her family and she also loves her family dearly as you can at 17 She's trying to find love. She's kind of trying to figure out what she's doing next with her life. And but she feels this great weight and responsibility because her family you Can't hear and they rely on her to interpret and also help out with their business. They have a family that's gone on for many generations. They're fishermen. And so she has to get up early, because they need someone who can hear on the boat. And she gets up at the crack of dawn and goes with her family and goes fishing. And then she scoots off to school, and often falls asleep in class. But why I love this movie so much. I thought it was super charming. I thought it reminded me of movies from the 1980s and 1990s. Someone my friend who told me about it, Maria, she said it reminded her of Mystic Pizza. And the setting certainly does. That movie took place in Mystic Connecticut, but it's the same idea to a slower smaller seaside town. And I just, yeah, I can't say enough about this movie. So anyway, it's won a bunch of awards. It just won to SAG Awards, including one for the dad, played by Troy Kotzur. He was he won for Best Supporting Actor. It's been nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor again for Troy Kotzur, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It's actually based on a French movie. So I would check that out. Oh, and the other thing I wanted to mention, about the other part about there's a lot of things going on this movie, but she gets it. She loves music, which is also interesting because her family can't hear the music. And so she wants to share with them and they want to share with her, but there's some they can't fully communicate. And so there is a music teacher that takes a shine to her and privately tutors her and is trying to help her get into the very prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. So that's another storyline. So check that out. Okay, so now we're going to talk about the books. So Agatha Christie. Alright, so Agatha. I think like many young readers, I they, I was first introduced to her when I was about nine years old, and I read several of her books, and just loved her. And I actually had a cat we had a calico cat named Agatha Christie, Tyler, that was my maiden name. And I didn't really take care of her very much. So of course, she became my mom's cat, but I named her. And I also remember being very young, listening to the soundtrack to Murder on the Orient Express. And that movie came out in the mid early mid 70s. And I was around them but way too young to go see the movie. But I remember the soundtrack and it was beautiful. You could hear the chug of the train as the train was taking off from the station in this movie, and you could hear like there was really creepy music when the murder happened. And I remember being wanting to be near my parents when the soundtrack played, but I really liked listening to it on my parents record player. Okay, so with that said, Agatha Christie herself. She is the biggest author of all time, she has sold more than 2 billion copies of her books. So that's absolutely incredible. She grew up in Devon, England and upper middle class family. And she was a voracious reader as a kid. And she said to have loved the moonstone by Wilkie Collins, which some people call the very first mystery. She also was a big fan of Sherlock Holmes. And another fun fact about her. She was a volunteer nurse during World War One which is apparently where she picked up a lot of knowledge about medicine and different drugs which she uses. In her novels, including the mysterious affair at styles. She wrote 60 novels and 14 short stories and she wrote from the 1920s through the 1970s. And her books were set among the British upper classes, and they were called cozy British mysteries. She focused a lot on plot and dialogue, not so much the description of the landscape around her and the dialogue as what moved the story along and so she drops clues into conversations that people are having. And there's just plot twist after plot twist. In fact, I would say in the mysterious affair at styles, there were too many plot twists. And there's absolutely no one other than Hercule Perot, who would probably be able to guess, the ending. And a fun fact about the mysterious affair at styles. This is her killed pros first appearance, he appeared in 30 of her novels. And the last novel he appeared in was Kurt curtain, which was published in 1975. And right after that, I think it was 1976 1975. The New York Times published an obituary on Hercule perot. So Hercule Perot, of course, it's the retired detective. He's Belgian. And he's has his short and stature and he seems to know everything more than everybody else. Okay, so now, let's talk about the first book, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie. I remember, one of the things that appealed to me about the story, I remember there was a movie with Vanessa Redgrave again, I was too young. And it was about the 11 days that Agatha went mystery missing. So that's exactly what this book is about. It is an historical novel trying to piece together the facts that the author could find out. And it goes into detail about where she went, you might know where she went. And we actually, in the end, don't know all the details about where she went for the 11 days. But so I'll tell you a little bit more about this book. Okay, so in real life, Agatha married the handsome Colonel Christie, her mother, who she was very close to did not approve. It was I think the mother wanted her to marry someone of her choosing from their exact social circle. And her sister maj did that. And so her sister kind of held that over her. But in the book there, her sister's actually not that happy herself. So it turns out her mom was right. The marriage was not a good one. And it ended up being a loveless marriage. And he ended up having an affair. And at the time of his disappearance, her disappearance, this is true. He came to her and said, I want out. I want to marry my lover, Nancy Neely, and you need to give me a divorce. And there was an argument. And then they had planned that weekend, he went off with her, Nancy Neely and some other friends to presumably another country manor. And then Agatha Christie was supposed to go somewhere else. But what ends up happening in the book and in real life, is her cars found the next day, with like, the headlights on, there's a thing of fur coat in the front seat, and her luggage is there, and she's missing. So full on manhunt ensues, and where art meets life. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was actually brought in to help solve this. And apparently he used psychic. I don't think they actually really did anything, but it brought a lot of press. But, um, what is this book about? So this book is about that time, but it's really also about women's rights, how hard it was for Agatha Christie, to be married and have a she had a daughter, have a daughter and find the time to write. And, as a matter of fact, the author Marie Benedict, that's what she's known for. She is known for finding kind of important women in history that might have been overlooked or we don't know everything about and then creating books around them. So Marie Benedict, that's her pen name, she her name is actually Heather Terrell. And she writes under the name Benedict, and she wrote another book, and that's how she first came on my radar called the other Einstein. And actually, I'm holding it in my hand because I haven't returned it to my friends, Andrea. And what this book is about, is about Albert Einstein's first wife, Mila, who was actually a physicist, and a scientist in her own right, and there's some discussion that she heavily influenced her husband, and some of the work that he did might actually be hers, so that I haven't actually finished this book, but it's supposed to be quite good. And she's also written another book called The personal librarian, which was popular a few years ago. So I really recommend this book, I thought I thought it was great. And actually, after reading the mysterious affair at styles, you could see how much she employed and used a lot of agathis devices, there seems to be the Manor House looms large. I mean, the great thing about a manor houses, there's lots of nooks and crannies for people to hide. And also, you can have guests come and go. And it makes, there could be more suspects or people involved. And I also learned in both of these books, you've got to watch out for the servants, because the servants hold a lot of power. And they're not always treated well by everybody. And so sometimes they have an axe to grind. And also, they're trained to not be seen. And so they are very adept at listening at doors, and finding keys and finding all kinds of things. So what else would I say about this book? I really enjoyed it. It made me think a lot about what it must have been like for Agatha, another storyline in this book, her mother, who drove home the point how important it was to pay 100% attention to her husband. And so as a result, she had a nanny for her daughter, and also didn't get to close the daughter. But then in the end, the daughter got a lot closer to her husband and not her. And so I think Agatha was quite, quite lonely. So in real life, she does end up getting divorced from Colonel Christie and does end up having a second marriage so that that I will tell you and of course, she ends up being found because otherwise she wouldn't have gone on to write all the books that she did. Okay, so now I'm going to talk about the mysterious affair at styles. Oh, and I should also mention in the Mr. And Mrs. Christie, the home that they lived in is called styles after the name of her first book, The mysterious fair affair at styles. So, Agatha wrote this book. It was published in 1920. And it is about a matron Emily Engel Thorpe. And she's very wealthy lives in a manor house, of course, near a town called Stiles, and she has some guests staying with her and she wakes up or, or the household wakes up, goes and I think a servant goes into her room and they find out that she's been poisoned. And it turns out, she's been poisoned by straightening. So it just so happens that one of the guests staying with her is Arthur Hastings. And Arthur Hastings runs off to get help from his friends, who happens to be her killed perot and brings her coke kill Perot, who's a Belgian detective. He's actually retired and that that's the whole thing she's known for she actually, the word cozy mystery or the phrase cozy mystery actually came from Agatha and Hercule perot. But one of the components is the the person who does the sleuthing is always an amateur. So here cool is concerned, an amateur. But of course, he's always three steps ahead of everybody else. And in this book, I was actually really surprised. It's our first there's the kind of sparkling dry room conversations. He's constantly every time something major happens, he draws everybody into the drawing room, which we've seen. Now from just about any mystery you you can think of, to kind of tell people what's going on and look for people's reactions and find out what's going on. And what else? Oh, another thing he says is he hero killed pro says, the easiest solution is often the answer. But I would say, oh, and in both these books, interestingly, the husband is the prime suspect. So that's another thing. One thing that I did not like about this book, this book is 100 years old. So there's a number of phrases and beliefs that are just not held today. So you've got to really keep that in mind when you're reading that book. But I really enjoyed it. And I I totally think I would say the solution is just impossible. There is no way anyone is going to figure out what's going on. The only person And who understands what, what's going on is her Hercule Perot, he knows way more than the police. And but his deductions are just, you know, like, he'll see a bottle turned over. And he'll be able to tell that it's been there for two weeks. And that, you know, it was from someone who'd come from two hours away because of, you know, a variety of things. It's just, it's just a little bit, I found the plot a little bit convoluted, but it was certainly a lot of fun. So that was really fun to go back and look at Agatha Christie, who hadn't thought about in a long time. So with that, oh, and I should just mentioned, the Christie affair. So the Christie affair, it's funny. Friend of mine picked it up by accident, because she saw that I posted that I was writing about the mystery of Mrs. Christie are going to talk about it. And this is for about the exact same story. It ended up being or it is a Reese Witherspoon book, Peck. And this one, this author, Nina de garmont, took a little bit more of creative license. It's an historical romance, and a mystery. There's also a murder in it, which does not happen in real life. And so she and I think she uses I have not read this book. And I'd be curious if any of you read the book, let me know. But I think she uses these 11 days, which are, were quite mysterious as sort of a jumping off point to do a full blown murder mystery. So that's what I have to say about those two books. And then I wanted to conclude by just giving a little preview, about mindful of murder, which I've chosen for spring book box. And it is, I'm really excited about this book. I'm going to be interviewing the author Susan Juby, later this spring, but I chose it because after all that's going on in the world and all that's going on with COVID. I wanted something fun and distracting. And this is an offbeat it's considered a cozy mystery. And it's by Susan Juby is an award winning Vancouver Island writer. And the reason also why I picked this is I loved her one of her last books. She's mostly known, she's a young adult writer, but she's written a couple of novels for adults. And she wrote an amazing book called The Wolfville poetry collective, which I highly recommend, if you haven't read it, and it's about a New Yorker who returns to Vancouver Island, where, because they've inherited a farm, it includes kind of a cast of characters of like a wide variety of quirky characters. And I call mindful of murder. I'm calling it the Thursday murder club meets Agatha Christie, Agatha Christie is actually mentioned in this book. It's charming, and it's hilarious, and it takes place on a Vancouver Island spiritual retreat. And in true, Susan Juby fashion, it is about a Buddhist detective Butler. So imagine that that's quite a mouthful, Helen Thorpe. And she is called back to help. She's about to get a fabulous job. She's just graduated from Butler college. And but before she takes a job, her former employer dies. And she has to go back and settle her affairs. And what she discovers is that, in fact, she thought the employer had died of natural causes, but in fact, she realizes of murder might have taken place. And I will leave that for you to kind of a preview for things to come. So if you're interested in the book box, I will put links in on Instagram and in the show notes, where you can get a unique link to get the book. And the other thing I wanted to mention is that is only for Canadian listeners, and if you living anywhere in Canada, but for American listeners, I'm partnering with bookshop.org. And that's an online bookstore and I'm legally going to be doing affiliate links with them. And what's really cool about that, I will get a small commission if you buy books through me, but also their mandate is to support independent bookstores, which I think is great, and so 10% of their sales go to independent bookstores, and choose the bookstore that you'd like to support. That's all I have to say today. Thank you so much for listening, and I will talk to you soon