With Duchess of Death, Richard Hack delivers an unauthorized biography of Agatha Christie, concentrating on the period in her life when she mysteriously disappeared for 11 days and supporting the story with the aftermath of this period. Using letters and documents from Christie's life, Hack paints the portrait of a woman who was adventurous and romantic, yet acutely shy and protective of her privacy. Though she coped with depression throughout her life, it was the moment in 1926, when her husband Archie asked for a divorce, that finally pushed Agatha over the edge.
Archie had fallen in love with a younger woman named Nancy Neele and, clinging to the hope that he might realize his mistake, Agatha removed her wedding ring one winter morning and surreptitiously left her estate. And by the time she was discovered at a resort, under the assumed personality of Mrs. Teresa Neele, Agatha's disappearance had erupted into a full-fledged media frenzy that crossed from Europe to America. Hack covers this event from two perspectives -- Agatha's and Archie's -- leading the readers to believe that Agatha staged her disappearance like one of her mysteries, leaving clues that went unnoticed and laughing at the detectives' incompetence. Following the divorce, at 38 years old, Agatha made the bold decision to travel across the globe on her own. Her writing career, which started from a dare she made with her sister, flourished after her disappearance and, largely driven by money, Agatha aimed to publish one book a year. A few years following her divorce from Archie, she met Max Mallowan, an exciting and endearing archeologist. Together they traveled the world, staying at exotic locales, Max working on digs while Agatha completed her writing.
Hack uses the remainder of the book to discuss Agatha's writing patterns, family relations, and affiliation with her publishers. Some amusing details are revealed that flesh out the writer's character, which, by her refusal to do interviews, has been mostly shrouded. Here are three: Agatha's mother forbid her to read until the age of 8; Agatha's favorite food was clotted cream; she loved to vacation in Iraq.
There are different types of biographies: stories that give a chronological history of someone's life, from birth to death, and those that analyze a specific event, period of time, or relationship in a person's life which encapsulate the individual. Both kinds serve a function, but in this case the choice is perfect: in focusing on a particularly meaningful period, Hack shows a clearer picture of Agatha Christie than a more thorough life history would. For other examples, see: The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940 versus Churchill: A Study in Greatness. In film, there's Rumble in the Jungle vs. Ali. Kinsey is also a good example. Like those works, Duchess of Death truly encapsulates Agatha Christie by reducing her to a moment in time.
In the case of Agatha Christie, the circus surrounding her disappearance added a dose of excitement and intrigue to the life of a woman who was merely used to writing about such events. Hack successfully shows the motives behind this event and the ways in which it affected the course of her life. But, aside from those 11 days, the life of the bestselling and most translated novelist in history plays out with mild discord.
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