It was like a plot from one of her own novels: On the evening of Dec. 4, Agatha Christie, carrying nothing but an attaché case, kissed her daughter good night and sped away from the home in England that she shared with her husband, Col. Archibald Christie. (He was having an affair with a younger woman; the public did not know this, but his wife definitely did.) No one knew where Christie was for almost two weeks.

Christie was 36 at the time and had already published several detective novels, including “The Secret Adversary” and “The Murder on the Links.” Her disappearance merited banner headlines the world over, making the front page of The Times on Dec. 6.

“The novelist’s car was found abandoned near Guildford on the edge of a chalk pit, the front wheels actually overhanging the edge,” the paper reported. “The car evidently had run away, and only a thick hedge-growth prevented it from plunging into the pit.”