Agatha Christie is, as was just mentioned, the best-selling fiction novelist of all time, with only Shakespeare being able to top her in terms of sales. In line with Best Mystery Series Books, "And Then There Were None," has been purchased over one hundred million times, and her play "The Mousetrap" holds the distinction for having the longest inaugural run of any production in the history of the theatre. Who is the most powerful woman in the world of mystery books? Only the Bible and works by Shakespeare have sold more copies than those written by Agatha Christie, making her the most widely published author in history. More than one billion copies of her novels have been sold in the English language alone, and another billion copies have been sold in one hundred different languages. She passed away in 1976, having enjoyed a fruitful career that spanned sixty years.