“The Mystery of Mrs. Christie” by Marie Benedict (post 1): As novel on Agatha Christie’s real-life disappearance begins, protagonist hears voices

The author, born Heather Marie Benedict, had been a successful lawyer, but is now a successful novelist, writing some of her novels as Marie Benedict and others as Heather Terrell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Terrell

On one of her two websites, the author says, “As a child, I always adored books in which the characters found a doorway to the past and got to lose themselves in another time and place. I wanted to be those characters. Now, as a writer, I get to fulfill that childhood fantasy of traveling to the past by walking through the doorway of my fiction…

“Marie Benedict…found her calling unearthing the hidden historical stories of women. Her mission is to excavate from the past the most important, complex and fascinating women of history and bring them into the light of present-day where we can finally perceive the breadth of their contributions as well as the insights they bring to modern day issues…” (Marie Benedict website).

“Heather dreamed of a fantastical job unraveling the larger mysteries of time and uncovering the truths lurking in legend and myth -- and found it when she tried her hand at writing. She first wrote…historical novels…[then] made the transition to young adult fiction…and speaks extensively at schools and libraries across the country” (Heather Terrell website).

The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, as it begins, gives its Agatha Christie character, in passing, one amusing attribute unrelated to her later disappearance. On more than one occasion, Agatha, as a young adult, hears her mother’s voice, advising and reprimanding her (1, pp. 7, 16).

Comment

The author’s protagonist hears benign, rational voices, which may reflect the author’s sense of ordinary psychology, based on her own personal experience. When a normal person hears such voices, it may indicate multiple personality trait, a normal version of multiple personality, which is common in great fiction writers. Her use of pseudonyms is consistent with this interpretation.

I will be interested to see what she thinks of Agatha Christie’s disappearance.

1. Marie Benedict. The Mystery of Mrs. Christie. Naperville Illinois, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2021.