This week, we have…

• A fun fact inspired by a recent Chronogram answer

• Answers to last week's games

• Reader survey

Agatha Christie’s own mysterious disappearance

Millions of people around the world have read the mysteries of beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Although fictional, their author and creator Agatha Christie (Chronogram guest #534) lived a life of intrigue as well, even going missing for 11 days in 1926 in still-unexplained circumstances that mirror her own whodunnit novels. 

As the story goes, a then-36-year-old Christie bid her daughter goodnight and drove off into the night, not to be seen or heard from for a week and a half in the middle of winter in Berkshire. This set off a massive missing persons hunt involving one thousand policemen, airplanes, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes novels (and coincidentally Chronogram’s answer #535). 

Police found Christie’s car abandoned by a slope, harbouring no evidence of an accident. Her body was not located nearby. Rumours abounded, including one that she had drowned herself in a nearby spring, one that her husband had her murdered, and another that claimed this was a publicity stunt for her latest novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Arthur Conan Doyle attempted to use a medium to contact her, with no success.

So where was she? Safe and sound in a hotel a train ride away, with absolutely no memory of how she ended up there, checked in under the name of her husband’s mistress, Theresa Neele. She never spoke of the 11 missing days, leaving police and others to put together their best guesses. They concluded that she had been in a car accident resulting in memory loss, boarded a train, and checked herself into the Harrogate hotel. Christie eventually made a full recovery, returned to writing, and left her husband in 1928. We may never know what happened, but perhaps that’s a question best left for Miss Maple and Mr. Poirot. 

Learn more

https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/agatha-christie-disappearance-mystery-facts-poirot-miss-marple-detective/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Agatha-ChristieTrivia

Answers to last week's games

Monday, September 16 to Sunday, September 22.

Linxicon

The following are the shortest paths from last week:

• #217 administration -> assurance -> certain

• #218 whatever -> ignore -> keep -> preserve

• #219 carefully -> regularly -> monthly -> month

• #220 money -> religion -> jesus -> holy

• #221 tomorrow -> future -> predict -> tell -> describe

• #222 nerve -> anger -> unemployment -> apply

• #223 hope -> optimistic -> resourceful -> resource

• #224 Play now!

Forgeous

Play Forgeous for Sep 23