Unfinished Portrait

Unfinished Portrait by Agatha Christie (writing under the name Mary Westmacott)
published by Dell Books
Copyright 1962

Haunted by Fear

As long as she could remember, Celia had
been haunted by a spectre of evil - a
spectre in the form of an unknown man
whose face was graven in her mind's eye
like a permanent nightmare of terror. Now
Celia found herself alone, beautiful and
vulnerable, in an isolated Spanish town,
staring in horrified recognition at the
stranger who had entered her room and
smilingly closed the door behind him.

It was he - the man of her terrible dreams,
come to brutally rip away the veils of mem-
ory and claim her as his own...

AGATHA
CHRISTIE
wrinting under the name
MARY
WESTMACOTT
displays a dazzling new facet of her
spellbinding genius in this unforgettable
novel of breathless romance,
intrigue and danger.

Here we have an experiment in art therapy. Notice how the weird dude on the cover appears to be emerging from our female character. Also notice that the copy from the back cover clearly tells us that this "mysterious spectre" had only existed in Celia's mind "for as long as she could remember".

Take these two facts, along with statement that his "face was graven in her mind's eye like a permanent nightmare of terror" and we obviously have a case of multiple personalities. From my understanding this condition is not uncommon with those of use who are alone AND both beautiful and vulnerable. Really, it like a beautiful and vulnerable text book case.

I also think Celia needs to get laid.