Mostly Murders

For the ReadChristie2026 July book, I’ve chosen Unfinished Portrait, written by Agatha Christie under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. It is not a mystery. There is no Poirot or Miss Marple, no alibis, suspects, red herrings or any of the things that Agatha Christie is famous for. If you are looking for an intricate, clever murder mystery, this isn’t it. But if you are curious about Agatha Christie as a person, and want to know more about her childhood and first marriage, you might want to read this one.

Of all of the Agatha Christie books I have read, Agatha Christie: An Autobiography is the one that comes the closest to Unfinished Portrait. But unlike her actual autobiography, Unfinished Portrait isn’t presented as the story of Agatha Christie, but as the story of a painter who meets a woman at the end of her tether, and decides to create a portrait of her by writing her story.

Unfinished Portrait is basically a biography disguised as fiction. If you know about Agatha Christie’s personal life, you will recognise many of the stories and elements in Celia’s story. And if the eventually unfaithful husband of Celia, is described as childish, selfish and cruel, it is probably because Agatha Christie still felt that way about Archibald Christie, years after their divorce.

You may have heard of Agatha Christie’s spectacular eleven day disappearence in December 1926 after her mother’s death and Archibald declaring that he wanted a divorce so he could marry someone else. Agatha Christie later refused to comment on her disappearance, but in Unfinished Portrait, Celia’s story seems to say at least some of the things that Agatha Christie herself never penned under her own name.

A must read if you want to know everything about Agatha Christie’s personal life, but not at all essential for Poirot and Miss Marple fans with no interest in the author herself, and not as comprehensive as Agatha Christie: An Autobiography which goes into far more detail about Agatha Christie’s life in general.

Fictional biography