The Secret Formula Behind Agatha Christie’s Bestselling Mysteries 🔍

Intro Agatha Christie's Mysteries have kept millions of readers hooked over time with more than two billion copies sold worldwide she's one of the bestselling authors of the 20th century but what is it that makes her stories so irresistible it couldn't have been just look so in today's video I'm breaking down the secret formula behind her successful novels from Iconic characters to clever red herrings are you ready to uncover the tricks of the trait of the queen of crime herself let's dive in now forward warning this video might contain some minor spoilers books that I reference or use as an example of some of the techniques that she used I will also be linking some extra reading material Down Below in the description box so you can do your own The Setting research now first let's talk the setting the location now of course Agata Christi used many locations across all of her books and at the first glance they don't seem to have much in common but if you look a bit closer you might notice that they all share one major feature now from a remote island in andand Nan to a Snowden train on the Orient Express to a luxurious Cruise liner on the Egyptian Nile all of these settings introduce One Singular and intense element and that's isolation by creating many of a Mysteries many of a stories in isolated settings AG Christi almost gives them a claustrophobic feel the idea of being locked up in a place together with a murderer and this indeed is a very clever way of writing because all of a sudden all of the characters aren't just suspects anymore they are also potential victims all of a sudden the game is on and we as readers share that feeling of dread as the characters do by simply knowing that there is a murderer amongst them amongst these strangers who will be the next and who will be the murderer and even when a location wasn't isolated at all aaki often used elements to make it so a sudden storm that makes communication with the outside world impossible heavy snowfall that delays the arrival of the police so that the detective present can of course solve the case before they do the clever choice of setting and location is key to many of the success of ageta Christi stories it adds a feeling of suspense of dread of excitement she truly was the queen of the closed quarter mystery but that wasn't the only trick she had up a The Characters sleeve now the characters in many of AA Christi's books are exactly the opposite of her settings while the setting is often complicated and full of depth her characters tend to be a bit twoo dimensional a bit flat even and they are often nothing more than worn down archetypes and cliches the retired army man the wealthy sour and old Noble woman the young and springy somewhat rebellious dilatant her character can often be described in a single sentence and by hearing it you already know everything there is to know about them but why did she do this lazy writing well hardly so and these somewhat flat characters are indeed intentional by using these simple archetypes these cliches of characters she provides her readers with a list of Usual Suspects and this is where she tricks you you see Agata Christi was a master at misdirection and one of her favorite tricks was to use the reader's own prejudices against them from the moment you think you know everything there is to know about a certain character well that's when she surprises you and turns things upside down a great example of this technique we find in the mysterious Affair at Styles now at the center of this mystery there is a very common situation domestic Strife the head of the family gets murdered surrounded by their family and each of the family members has a certain reason to kill K them AG Christin knew that in such a situation the usual suspect would be the husband so she created a character that could very well be the murderer a younger man living of the wealth of his wife possibly Unfaithful and hated by the family AA Christi keeps on heaping suspicion onto the poor Alfred inglor after all it couldn't be that easy could it aat Christi uses the Instinct of her readers against them it is almost a magic trick the focus goes to this hand while the other does the actual slate of hand now I do have to say that it is this type casting these prejudices that are often cited as the main critique of agat Christi's works today many of the prejudices she used against her audience back then we would find today outdated and even harmful stereotypes against gender or ethnicity now although many of her characters could be called flat and two-dimensional she always worked very hard to give them an authentic feel and to do so she closely observed the people around her and always tried to listen into random conversations that were happening all around her from her biography we know that she used to carry lots of notebooks where she noted down all of these Snippets of conversations and special characteristics of people that she met and once home at her writing table she would take all of these erratic ideas and Snippets and names and ideas for poisons and start combine them into a story into a plotline in fact it was her second novel The Secret adversary that originated from overhearing a conversation in a t- shop she once admitted in an interview that two people were talking at a table nearby discussing someone called Jane fish that I thought would be the great beginning of his story a name overheard at a tea shop an unusual name so that whoever heard it would remember it now of course she switched all of these elements around because let's be honest no one wants to recognize themselves in the murder victim in the next novel Jane fish became Jane Finn but it does add to the credibility and the everyday normality of the situations that she often wrote about and that wasn't the only thing that felt recognizable to her readers The Language writing mystery novels is often an act of balance on the one hand you don't want to make a transparent and easy to solve mystery but on the other hand you don't want to write that book that is so complicated that you will lose half of your readers paway through so how did she strike that balance well through her language a Christi was known for her everyday and very common language she was not a literary writer she used very simple everyday words without many flourishes and even a very restricted vocabulary comparative literary studies between Agatha Christie's works and that of other famous mystery writers like sir ath kand Doyle even showed that she hardly ever used synonyms where other writers would use words like he answered he replied he retorted he rebuked a Christi would simple say he said her dialogues are quick easy and never hard to follow and by doing so her books become very recognizable to people the people in the books talk like people every day do in simple conversational language but again this Simplicity is intentional it allows the reader to focus on solving the mystery and following the trail of clues that was carefully laid about that's right Agata Christie wanted you to solve the mystery she wanted you to have all of the clues just not understand them and just slap yourself at the end of the book when you seem to have missed things and this brings us to another element in our secret formula the The Mystery mystery this brings us to something where AGA chrisry truly was unique for her time and age she wanted you to have all of the clues she wanted you to have an honest chance at solving the puzzle solving the mystery yourself and in doing so she was breaking an Unwritten rule about murder mysteries if you look again at sir Arin and Do's homes you never as a reader get all of the clues you as the reader are just along for the ride as the famous detective solves it all and then at the end of the story just explains to you as if you were a child on how he did it but not with a chrisy Mysteries but Bart I hear you say I was never able to solve any of the Mysteries before the end of the book well that's because she knew how to write her Clues you see a good clue is a clue that you'll probably remember but fail to understand again miss direction is key here you might think you recognize something as a clue leading to a certain character only to have it revealed to be just circumstantial or even place there to frame someone yet throughout the story since you are collecting clues for yourself you are hooked you yourself have become the detective in some way and you're trying to solve the puzzle that she has laid out before you and yes of course you're going to finish this book because you want to know if you were right all along and agat Christi delivers this explanation in a very agat Christi way the expose even if you have read only a few agat Christi novels you'll be familiar with this scene the detective whomever it is summons all of the suspects into a single room and then and there they start to explain how the mystery was unraveled and who in the end the murderer is she will even often use a secondary character for example Captain Hastings in pero case to wonder at certain misdirections and certain red herrings so she can explain to them and you as a reader where you failed in a way the end of the novel this expose is your scorecard you as a reader can check off and see how well or how poorly you did and of course it is the iconic ending of murder on the Orient Express that summarizes all of these Notions in the end Hercule prro summons all of the suspects all of the passengers on the train together into one single carriage and he starts to explain he starts to solve the puzzle and it is then and there that we as readers suddenly realize that we've been H well we thought we knew about a murder mystery our own prejudices of there being one maybe to perpetrate has been used against us 12 murderers is absolutely unheard of but it is when her Kil Pro starts to reveal and show where the pieces of the puzzle fit together that it all becomes clear all that is left is the moral dilemma should they all be punished and of course the reader's astonishment and speaking of Hercule perau let's talk about the last element of our secret sauce the detective The Detective now aisti created many investigators from the Elusive and mysterious Harley Quinn up to the interpret Duo of Tommy and chupin but of course there are two that are ever so famous hercu prro and Miss Jane marble now what is very interesting about many of our detectives is that they are almost anti-heroes they often come from an underdog position her clue proo is a Belgian Refugee and Miss Jane maral is an elderly woman they don't carry any arms they can't fight like holes did and they can easily be overpowered by any criminal that chooses to so what is it that makes them so effective and so well- loved well their secret lies within their eccentricities aat Chris detectives and investigators are eccentric quirky and often underestimated and this is of course extra fun for us as readers because we know that Aunt Jane isn't just sitting there knitting in the corner no she's solving the murder before the police even does and yes they are Brilliant Minds but they are also very human they have their eccentricities their quirks and their faults in the end we root even for someone as arrogant and full of himself as little Hercule proo and of course they are also often accompanied by secondary characters and it is this support cost that allows them to shine even more we as readers can often identify much more with one of the secondary characters like Captain Hastings for example because we too have got no clue what's going on he has seen and witnessed the same Clues as we did but in the end it'll be prro who solves the case thank you for joining me in unraveling a Christi's Mysteries if you enjoyed this analysis don't forget to give the video a thumbs up and do subscribe for more bookish content and now I'd love to hear your thoughts what is your favorite agat Christi novel let me know down in the comments below and if you're up for some more mysterious agat Christi content well you can always watch this video thanks for joining me see you next week