Agatha Christie wrote romance novels under the name Mary Westmacott.

Agatha Christie, 1891

Mystery stories require a meticulous structure, and emotions typically don’t drive the plot. This worked out well for Agatha Christie, who liked her public persona to be somewhat guarded, especially after her infamous 1926 disappearance caused a media ruckus. But Christie found a way to express herself more deeply while still maintaining her privacy: She wrote several semi-autobiographical romance novels under a pen name, Mary Westmacott. The alias allowed Christie to be emotionally vulnerable — and the books received rave reviews.

“The Westmacott [novels] always said things that Agatha couldn’t express any other way,” biographer Laura Thompson wrote in Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life. These books gave Christie an outlet to explore her fraught relationship with her first husband Archie Christie, reflect honestly (and sometimes harshly) on motherhood, and unearth past trauma. In the Westmacott novel that most closely parallels her own life, Unfinished Portrait (1934), a woman reeling from losses similar to those experienced by Christie meets a handsome painter on an exotic island who listens to her painful life story while creating her portrait.

The Westmacott books were a valuable, anonymous outlet to Christie from 1930 until 1949, when her identity was revealed in the “Atticus” gossip column of the Sunday Times. She published two more books under the pseudonym after that, but insisted that her real name stay out of the promotion.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

Louisa May Alcott wrote thrillers under a pen name.

Author Louisa May Alcott became a household name — and developed a wholesome reputation — from her classic coming-of-age novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo’s Boys. But Alcott had a hidden bibliography that remained a secret for more than 50 years after her death. Under the name A.M. Barnard, Alcott wrote around 30 thrillers, known then as “sensation stories,” centered around fiercely independent heroines. Her secret identity was first uncovered in 1945, but Alcott was highly prolific and used multiple pen names, so researchers are still discovering new works by the author, including 20 stories and poems that were unearthed at the beginning of 2024.