IF YOU want to find out what happened to Miss Christie, The Swan Theatre in Worcester is as good a place as any to start.

Your investigation of the mystery will be rather timely too, because last Friday, September 15, would have been the Queen of Crime's birthday and the date is now officially the annual Christie Day.

This week a new play, "a mystery about the greatest mystery writer of all time", will open as a world premiere and enjoy a run at the Swan Theatre from Tuesday, September 19 to Saturday September 23.

A spokesman for "Where Is Mrs Christie?" said: "Out-sold only by the Bible and Shakespeare, Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time.

"She wrote sixty-six detective novels and fourteen short story collections, as well as the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap, and her super-sleuth creations Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are literally beloved by millions.

"But in 1926, the thriller writer of all time was at the centre of a mystery as perplexing as any of her fiction; a series of events that sparked one of the biggest and most extensive manhunts in history."

Her crashed car was discovered in Surrey and the famous author was missing, presumed dead by many, for eleven days.

When she was eventually found – at a luxury hotel in Harrogate – the author claimed that she was suffering from amnesia and remembered nothing.

Neither the press nor the police believed her.

The spokesman added: "Did she lie, or was it really amnesia? Was it a publicity stunt? Or was there a darker secret behind the disappearance that would affect her for the rest of her life? As in all good thrillers, all will be revealed in the Rep’s stunning new one-woman show, starring corps Rep actor and star of The Second Best Bed, Liz Grand."

Author and Director Chris Jaeger began his own sleuthing into the events surrounding, and indeed during, those eleven mysterious days two years ago, and certainly has his own beliefs as to what went on.

He said: "It takes some careful research – and certain sensitivity – to write and form opinions about an international treasure."

Tickets are available from the Worcester Live Box Office on 01905 611427 or at www.worcesterlive.co.uk.