And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None (pages 272)
Author: Agatha Christie
Category: Mystery
3/30

“When the sea goes down, there will come from the mainland boats and men. And they will find ten bodies and an unsolved problem on Indian Island.”

If you have never been much into mystery I would recommend starting off with this book. If you have read mystery and never read this book you ought to give this a shot. And Then There Were None is considered to be a catalyst for much of what we know to be the formula of other novels and films. Without giving away all of the information I will gloss over the logistics of the storyline. Ten unacquainted individuals are lured to Indian Island and the first night of their visit they are accused of past crimes. They are said to be the only individuals on the island, but are taunted by a nursery rhyme called “ten little Indians”. These individuals are desperate to unmask the culprit in their group (since they are unable to prove anybody else is on the island) because as each day goes by one-by-one they start to get killed off. There are a myriad of clues that turn this into one large puzzle to piece over and over the course of my first reading I couldn’t figure it out. I have yet to figure out if Christie, purposely, throughout the story left out key elements that make it almost impossible to figure out or if she’s just that good at logic.

There rarely comes a time where I feel suspense and confusion whilst engaging in a work. Eventually, there is something that makes the entire work predictable and we are all left saying “good try” – but that is not what happens with this work. I couldn’t figure out how the events that were taking place were happening and to me that automatically places the novel at the top of my favorites list. The only moments that I put the book down were to puzzle over the events that were taking place. I was unable to take a strong guess as to who the culprit was – and for those of you who really know me know that drove me crazy. Either way, she managed to creep me out and also stump me with this mystery which is why I highly recommend this to all.

I give this work 5/5 stars.