When The World’s Greatest Whodunit Writer Disappeared, The Police Were Left Utterly Clueless

On an ice-cold winter evening in 1926 Agatha Christie kissed her daughter goodnight, got into her car and disappeared. This woman, who had created mysteries for a living, was now engulfed in one herself. Decades on, and the incident still baffles people. So, what exactly transpired? Why did Christie feel the need to leave? And, maybe the biggest question of all… Whodunit?

Christie’s disappearance has been fictionalized for a long time now. Writers have offered their own ideas about what made her leave, with some being more serious than others. The 1979 film Agatha, for example, suggested that she had a vendetta against her husband. Meanwhile, a 2008 Doctor Who episode brought alien wasps into the fold.

Of course, it was much easier in 1929 to fall off the face of the Earth if you wished – assuming, of course, that Christie actually did want to. There was no GPS, no CCTV, no cell phones. Even someone famous, as Christie very much was, could potentially run away and never be found.

Christie was already a renowned crime writer by that point in her life, having previously introduced her iconic Hercule Poirot character back in 1920. Moreover, her sixth novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was doing very well. So, it probably hadn’t been money issues making her flee, right?

Perhaps Christie’s personal life held the answer? She married a man named Archie Christie in 1914 – he’s where she got that now-famous last name from, her original one having been Miller. The couple had one child together, a daughter they named Rosalind. Could a mother really just walk out on her own child without ever planning to return?