The secret formula to Agatha Christie's murder mysteries - Jamie Bernthal

Dig into Agatha Christie’s writing style to find out how she crafted her mystery novels and how to employ these strategies in your own work.

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With almost 100 mystery novels, each one a cleverly constructed puzzle box of clues, misdirection, and human drama, Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. Her eccentric detectives, clever clues, and simplified suspects have stumped countless readers over the last century. So, how did she craft these perfect crimes? Jamie Bernthal dissects the writing of Agatha Christie.

Lesson by Jamie Bernthal, directed by Totem Creative.

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[angrygoose]

I think we need to thank Madge for making her sister so mad she became a bestselling author

[danielcooper]

I'm still amazed that "Murder on the Orient Express" is one of the most iconic murder mysteries ever yet I was still completely surprised by the ending.

[SirPembertonS.Crevalius]

Simplicity being a key part of how she kept reader's hooked is brilliant to me. I've always thought the "less is more" approach to be one of the best for many fields, not just limited to writing.

[skyhideaway]

i also love how christie incorporated psychology into her mysteries. whereas detectives like sherlock holmes solely relied on clues to solve his cases, both hercule poirot and miss marple used their social skills and their extensive knowledge of the human psyche (paired with the evidence they have, of course) to come to the conclusion.

[smikkelbeer]

'And Then There Were None' is one of her greatest works in my opinion. I remember when I first read it and being on the edge of my seat the whole time. 'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd' was really good too.

[daltongrowley]

Part of what makes Christie's books so enduring is that even if the mystery is spoiled for you (or you've read the book before) the stories are still extremely engaging! Sometimes one might even find clues they may have missed the first time; or if the reader is like me, might fall so deeply into the narrative that one forgets the whodunit part of the whodunit!!

[ethanomcbride]

My husband and I just finished “And Then There We’re None”
I’ve re-read it 5 times but it was his first. It’s probably the first time we’ve agreed something was a work of genius

[NadiaEldemerdash]

Agatha Christie may well have used ethnic or racial stereotypes in her works, but she also challenged the prevailing British xenophobia of her time by casting foreigners as the main character (notably Poirot--people may not appreciate this now but he started out as a Belgian refugee during WWI and often experienced prejudice from the Brits he encountered more casually in various stories) or by casting suspicion on a foreign character only to reveal that they were set up or otherwise taken advantage of by the real culprit. That's actually something that I've come to appreciate more and more in her work.

[jannetteberends]

Two dimensional people? She gave the best descriptions of psychopaths ever. The charming young man, the kid that murders because it wants something, the CEOs, the nice tomboy girl. The false confession also there. Some books are a study in psychology.

[maristar]

I LOVE Christie's crime! I prefer her crimes where you can actually have a chance of finding out the "who did it", then sherlock where its almost impossible to find out yourself who it was

[joshtaylor]

Christie obsessive here:
It’s a long running misunderstanding that Christie would change her murderers throughout writing her novels which added to their difficulty in solving. While I’m sure she did that, and there a few instances where she definitely did, usually the entire book, including the murderer was plotted out in notebooks before she started writing, you can see all the examples in John Curran’s Agatha Christie’s secret notebooks. Also, Christie already had her idea to write a mystery with the twist her debut novel ends with, it was more a playful conversation between the sisters that got her to writing and not at all a sibling rivalry, per her autobiography.
And quite a few of her novels feature complex characters:
Five Little Pigs, The Hollow, Towards Zero, Endless Night and Death on the Nile

[raghvendrasinghsengar]

It's out of my mind how Ted ed always comes up with different yet, beautiful animation styles😃

[karishmachaudhary]

2:26 oh, how much I'm in awe of your animations, the creativity just blows my mind every time!❤

[anaiya]

I love her works!! I get so easily hooked while also having a definite idea of the potential criminal. She's so brilliant it's almost unnerving.

[sriparnaseal]

My personal favorites is 'Five Little Pigs' because it was the ONLY mystery book I ever read where the murderer turned out to be the only character I thought was DEFINETLY innocent.

[creamocropable]

The murder of Roger Ackroyd will forever hold a special place in my heart. It is the kind of book that makes me wosh it is possible to momentarily forget a story, just so I can experience the act of reading and discovering it once again.

[DB-meol]

I remember when I first started 'And then there were none'. We were moving into a new house and I was just so caught up! I missed school for that. One of her only books I have read but I sure will read the others whenever I get hold of them (They are hardly available in our school library so in demand)

[TheMadReader]

These type of videos are very helpful and guiding for young aspiring writers like me. Please upload a similar video about the writing style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and how he made the stories of Sherlock Holmes so captivating. Thank you so much for making such lovely videos.

[gayathri]

My all time favourite author, The murder of roger ackroyd, and The mirror cracked from side to side are pure classics.

[sjinzaar]

Compliments to the animation team doing this video. Thank you!❤