US Edition Scientists claimed yesterday that they have solved the mystery behind the success of Agatha Christie's novels.
They said her literary techniques mirror those of hypnotherapists and psychologists, causing a physiochemical response in readers that makes them want to read more. The findings could lead to a formula to explain why some books are "unputdownable", they said.
Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time, with an estimated two billion copies of her murder mysteries and other stories in print.
The study by linguistics experts at Warwick, Birmingham and London universities showed how Christie quickened the pace of a story by using dashes and by making sentences simpler as the plot reached its climax.
She also uses phrases such as "grave mistake" or "good grief" to conjure the spectre of death. Dr Roland Kapferer, who led the study, said his team aimed to examine other authors to test if their books had similar effects.
He said: "I am convinced that our research has come one step closer to defining what it means for a book to be unputdownable."