It’s the 100th Anniversary of Agatha Christie’s Eleven Day Disappearance. Join us for virtual programs that explore this mystery!
Series sponsored by the Friends of the Avon Library. Please register for each event separately; Zoom links go out the day before the event.
Join us for a conversation with Jared Cade to discuss his book, Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days.
About Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days.
In December 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared in bizarre circumstances from her home in Berkshire, England. The discovery of the crime writer’s abandoned car led to the biggest manhunt in British history for a missing person. Eleven days later she was found over two hundred miles away in a northern spa town, claiming to be the victim of amnesia. Up till the publication of this book in 1998 none of her biographers had come up with conclusive evidence as to what she did during the first twenty-four hours after she disappeared or whether her memory loss was genuine. Although the newspaper headlines made Agatha Christie famous, the private anguish that surrounded the episode ensured she made no reference to it in her memoirs.
Jared’s Cade’s number one bestselling biography – on which a BBC television documentary has been based – provides the answers to the mystery, including Agatha Christie’s long forgotten explanation of the notorious episode, along with startling accounts by her relatives that reveal for the first time why she staged the disappearance with the help of a co-conspirator and how it all went terribly wrong. His sympathetic investigation reveals the incidents that shaped her character and how the fall-out from the disappearance affected the rest of her life.
Jared Cade is the multi award-winning creator of the Lyle Revel and Hermione Bradbury cosy mystery series. His books demonstrate a fondness for amateur sleuths, traditional mysteries, locked-room murders, and impossible crimes set against a predominantly British background. Some of his stories have the added allure of exotic locations abroad.He is a former tour guide for a bespoke luxury travel company, escorting parties around Agatha Christie’s former home Greenway, in Devon, which is open to the public courtesy of the National Trust. During an appearance on the British television quiz The $64,000 Question, he won the top prize on his specialist subject of Agatha Christie’s novels.Jared Cade is also the Amazon number one bestselling author of Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days. His latest book Secrets from the Agatha Christie Archives was longlisted for the ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction Award. Learn more here
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, by Marie Benedict
A Talent for Murder, by Andrew Wilson
Feel free to read ahead, or enjoy the event and request the titles afterwards!
About our presenter: Pamela Bedore is Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, where she teaches courses in American Literature, popular culture, and gender theory. She has published widely on genre fiction and pedagogy, including Dime Novels and the Roots of American Detective Fiction (Palgrave, 2014), Great Utopian and Dystopian Works of Literature (Great Courses, 2017), and The Routledge Introduction to Canadian Crime Fiction (Routledge, 2024). Pam coordinates the English major at UConn’s Avery Point campus, and is excited about her upcoming trip to England, where she will be the faculty expert on the Great Courses Travel project: Great British Mysteries: A Holiday Tour of Literary London (Dec 2026).
Join us for a lively presentation and conversation with Kemper Donovan, host of the All About Agatha podcast. We’ll explore the many incarnations, representations, and interpretations of Agatha Christie’s disappearance in pop culture: film, literature, theater, etc. Which versions seem plausible? Which ones are outlandish? We’ll discuss, evaluate, and even rank these interpretations with audience input.
All About Agatha is a podcast all about, well, Agatha. Agatha Christie, of course: the Queen of Crime, a real-life Dame of the British Empire, and author of sixty-six mystery novels that spanned the Twentieth Century, defining a genre. For five years, Catherine Brobeck and Kemper Donovan revisited these novels in publication order, ranking them according to pre-set criteria (plot, character, etc.). Tragically, Catherine Brobeck passed away at the end of 2021. She will be forever missed. Since then, Kemper has completed the podcast’s ranking project, and continues to celebrate the greatness of Christie by attempting to solve the ultimate mystery where she is concerned. Why Christie–and Christie alone–endures as powerfully as she does.
WHODUNNIT??? Marking the 50th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s death, and the 100th anniversary of her 11-day disapearane, the Avon Library presents four mysteries. Three gems from American Cinema, and a classic by Agatha Christie. View the films on your own and join the Zoom discussions at 7:00 pm. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Returning home from Istanbul on the Orient Express, renowned Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is called upon to solve the murder of an American businessman aboard the train. The suspects are numerous and the clues confusing. Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall and Ingrid Bergman head this all star cast.