And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Review (4.5/5 Stars):

I can see why this was one of Agatha Christie's best novels. I've only read one other book by this author but this one was by far superior in writing style, character development and plot. The suspense in her novels is what makes them page turners as the reader is trying to piece together the puzzle with each clue the characters in the book unravels. My favorite scene in the book was when the five of them were sitting in the living room and Christie gave the reader an inside look on each of their thoughts. It was interesting to try and pick out which thought belonged to the murderer and through that (the way of speech etc) decipher who the murderer is. Quite entertaining.

Synopsis (SPOILERS):

Ten Little Indians

Ten little Indian boys went out to dine;

One choked his little self and then there were nine. 

Nine little Indian boys sat up very late;

One overslept himself and then there were eight.

Eight little Indian boys traveling in Devon;

One said he’d stay there and then there were seven.

Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks;

One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.

Six little Indian boys playing with a hive;

A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.

Five little Indian boys going in for law,

One got in Chancery and then there were four.

Four little Indian boys going out to sea;

A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.

Three little Indian boys walking in the Zoo;

A big bear hugged one and then there were two.

Two little Indian boys sitting in the sun;

On got frizzled up and then there was one.

One little Indian boy left all alone;

He went and hanged himself and then there were none. 

Quite a few people are familiar with this children's rhyme.  In "And Then There Were None", Agatha Christie's villain tricks 9 people to a remote island and kills them off one by one the way the ten little Indians die in the poem. After supper on the first night they arrived, a gramophone mysteriously started announcing the allegations against each of the guests, implying that this is the reason they were all called forth to the house. In Agatha Christie's style, she allows each of the guests to explain their story. The plot then begins to thicken as people begin to die.

The first to die is Anthony Marston, a young man with the good looks and physique of a God. When he zoomed up in his fancy car, everyone had thought that he looked immortal, but they were wrong. Marston was accused with the murder of John and Lucy Combes, who he claimed he accidentally ran over while speeding one day. At first the reader is led to believe that he choked on his drink but it was later confirmed that the murdered had slipped him some poison while no one was looking.

Next up was Mrs. Rogers, who along with her husband was hired cook and butler to the party. They had no idea that this was a job that paid too little for what they were going to lose. They were accused of murdering their previous boss, an elderly lady who left a nice sum of money to them. She died in her sleep but again, was confirmed that someone slipped her a second dose of sleeping drugs providing her eternal rest. 

Third to go was General MacArthur. He was the only one that adamantly believed that he wouldn't leave the island alive right from the get-go. His crime was that as a General, he deliberately sent one of his men on a doomed mission. The young lad happened to be his young wife's lover. The day after Marston and Mrs. Rogers's death, General MacArthur went to sit out by the rocks and told anybody that would listen that he knew the end was coming and it did, for him.

The fourth little Indian that "chopped himself in halves" is Mr. Rogers. He was a wonderful butler according to the guests but as he was accused of the same crime that killed his wife, he too had to die. 

The only murder that didn't go exactly to the rhyme is Mrs. Brent's. Instead of being stung by a bee, as the rhyme indicates, the killer injected poison into her neck and then left a bee beside her. (I guess it would be a bit much if one of the guests was coincidentally allergic to bees). A deeply religious old lady, she was often considered a religion maniac by the other guests. She had a girl stay with her to help her with her housework years ago but when the girl turned up tarnished (to my understanding, she was pregnant), Mrs. Brent declared her a sin and sent her off. The girl later killed herself and thus, became reason enough for the killer to make Mrs. Brent pay.

The suspense mounts as there are only half the number of guests left after 3 days. The 5 remaining guests make a pack to not leave each other's sight. Only one guest could leave a time, ensuring that if they're the killer, they'll have no victim to work with. Despite their precaution, Instead of Judge Wargrave was found dead after everybody ran off to check on Miss Claythorne. It turned out the killer planted a seaweed on a hook in Miss Claythorne's room so that she would scream and get everyone's attention when it hit her. During the confusion, the killer shot the Judge and left him in his robes and wig making the 6th section of the rhyme come true. 

After Judge Wargrave's death, the last 4 guests locked themselves into the room at night. It was later discovered that Dr. Armstrong had disappeared. Mr. Blore was already suspecting Dr. Armstrong as he had in his possession a large assortment of drugs and many of the earlier victims died of poisoning. They all believed that he was feigning his disappearance to pull a fast one over them, hence - "red herring swallowed one". For the sake of order Dr. Armstrong was accused of killing one of his victims and the truth was he had operated while drunk so in a sense, the accusation was true and he died for it. (We later found that the real killer was the red herring and tricked Dr. Armstrong into helping him and ended up throwing him off the cliffs and into the water).

Now there were only 3 guests left and they all begin suspecting one another or having theories that Dr. Armstrong is still alive and looking for ways to kill them. When Mr. Blore is squished by a slab of marble pushed out of a second floor window while the other two guests were away from the house, it confirms their fear that there is someone else on the island. Mr. Blore was an ex-cop that planted evidence on someone he knew was guilty of a charge but didn't have evidence to arrest. (For the record, the slab of marble was from a clock that had a bear on it - completing the "A big bear hugged one"). 


That leaves us with two guests remaining: Miss Claythorne who, through neglect, purposely drowned a little boy that she was governess to; and Philip Lombard who left 21 East African men to die in order to preserve his own life. The two of them discovered Dr. Armstrong's dead body after Mr. Blore died and with that scapegoat out of the way, they turned on one another. Miss Claythorne managed to outsmart Lombard and ended up shooting him with his own gun, making her that last "little Indian boy" remaining. Perhaps she was tired of all the events, or perhaps she was not in her right mind after witnessing so many murders and deaths but when Miss Claythorne got back to her room and saw a noose and chair set up for a hanging, she followed the instructions of the rhyme and rightly hung herself.


When the island with all its dead bodies, no one could figure out how everyone died until someone found a letter from Judge Wargrave confessing to how he set up all the murders. It turns out he killed himself after Miss Claythorne and his death earlier in the book was staged!!