Agatha Christie: What made the world’s bestselling author successful? Here’s a clue in plain sight

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Agatha Christie (1890–1976). The event itself, on January 12, was marked by a flurry of media coverage across the world, and academic experts were sought for comment. The chief question being: why is Christie the bestselling author of all time?

Christie’s success is a conundrum, not a self-evident manifestation of incontrovertible genius – and this is what makes it so fascinating. Christie was a talented writer, but the same could easily be said of many 20th-century authors.

Known as the “queen of crime”, she was a prolific bestselling author when she died – but so were her fellow mass-producing crime writers, Edgar Wallace (1875–1932) and John Creasey (1908–1973). They didn’t go on to have phenomenal literary afterlives.

Christie, by contrast, became a synonym for a whole genre of writing, and her characters became some of the most beloved figures in global popular culture. How did this happen? What made Christie transcend her times and her competitors?

Terror, tension, suspense

One of the solutions commonly proposed for the secret of Christie’s success is her plotting. She is the doyenne of the “clue-puzzle” mystery, with an unparalleled ability to generate clever plots that surprise, delight and even shock her readers.

This reputation is in large part...

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