Alumni engagement and philanthropy

Queen’s academic helps crack Agatha Christie 'whodunnit' mystery 

04 August 2015

As fans of best-selling author Agatha Christie celebrate the 125th anniversary of her birth, experts claim to have worked out how to spot 'whodunnit' in Christie murder novels.

Where the novel is set, the primary means of transport used throughout the story, and how the victim dies are all said to be important clues to the identity of the killer.

Dr Dominique Jeannerod from the Institute for Collaborative Research in the Humanities at Queen’s, was joined by Dr James Bernthal from the University of Exeter and data analyst Brett Jacob for the research commissioned by UKTV channel Drama. The team analysed a selection of the famous author’s novels including Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile to work out how readers – and viewers – might more easily and quickly identify the perpetrator.

Talking to The Guardian newspaper, Dr Jeannerod said questions had long been asked about whether Christie followed a pattern. “We gathered data including the number of culprit mentions per chapter, a ‘sentiment analysis’ of culprit mentions, transport mentions and several cross-references with other key concepts of the novels,” he said.

“We were able to discover patterns emerging in several aspects of Christie’s novels: trends formed when we grouped our data via year, detective, gender of culprit, motive, cause of death.

“We also assessed the sentiment of the first mentions of the culprit in each work, using a sentiment analysis program, Semantria, to unmask themes in Christie’s word patterns and choices when mentioning the culprit. We found that, generally, for example, she employs more negative sentiment when the culprit is female, whereas a male culprit has higher levels of neutral or positive sentiment,” said Dr Jeannerod.

Clues as to the culprit include:

  • The killer will be introduced in the first half of the book
  • He/she is likely to be emotionally involved with the victim (most killers are spouses or blood relatives)
  • If there are a lot of land vehicles in the story, the killer is most likely female
  • If there are a lot of nautical vehicles and aircraft in the story, the killer is most likely male
  • If the victim is strangled, the killer is most likely male (or male with a female accomplice)
  • If the crime is set in a country house, the murderer is most likely female
  • Analysis showed female killers are normally discovered because of a domestic item, while male murderers are normally found out through information or logic
  • If Poirot is the detective, and the cause of death is stabbing, the killer will be mentioned more often at the beginning of the book
  • When Miss Marple is in charge, and the motive for the murder is money or an affair, the killer will appear more in the later stages of the novel than at the beginning

The research was commissioned by UKTV Drama, who are celebrating Agatha Christie's anniversary by screening 10 of her most famous stories on weekdays with 'Agatha Christie Hour' at 8pm, from 3–14 August.

Dr Dominique Jeannerod can be contacted at the Institute for Collaborative Research in the Humanities, 18 University Square, Belfast, BT7 1NN; telephone +44 (0)28 9097 3791.

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