Is this the most effective storytelling technique of all?

My girlfriend and I were just watching the movie Death on the Nile and something unexpected happened.

Someone got murdered, and in the end, the killer was revealed. And it all happened in Egypt.

OK, not entirely unexpected, is it? In fact, this is exactly what you would expect, with an Agatha Christie story called ‘Death on the Nile’. If you’ve never heard of the best-selling author of all time, or her protagonist Hercule Poirot: her stories are whodunnits. (Don’t worry, this blogpost is spoiler-free)

I love whodunnits. Not just as someone who watches movies or reads books, but also as someone interested in learning about storytelling. Because whodunnits teach us what might be the most effective storytelling technique there is… story delaying. We already know what’s going to happen (someone dies) and we already know the ending (the murder will be solved). We just don’t know who dies exactly, how they are killed, why and by whom.

A whodunnit is one big question that is slowly answered over the course of two hours or so. We get clues, but also more questions. What keeps us glued to the screen is perhaps the most powerful human force there is. It’s not love, it’s curiosity. Give us a really interesting question and we are just dying to know the answer. Who is the killer? What’s on the other side of the ocean? How did the universe came to be? We love mysteries because we can’t stand it if they are not solved.

So thank you Kenneth Branagh, for making another Hercule Poirot movie. Thank you for not just entertaining me and my girlfriend, but also for inspiring me. Next time I have to give a presentation at work I might turn it into a mystery. I’m curious: can I use curiosity to hold my audience’s attention? If you want to know, stay tuned. I will write about it soon. Or will I?