And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Age: Adult
Category: Mystery & Crime
Rating: 5 stars

Marta Thinks: Agatha Christie, most commonly called ‘The Queen of Crime’, has an extremely vast and prestigious repertoire of novels, such as ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ (whose unexpected plot twist earned her reputation) and ‘Murder on the Orient Express’, which was later produced as a movie casting stars such as Ingrid Bergman and Lauren Bacall. Her novels vary - some have no detective (such as this one), some include Tommy and Tuppence, many others have Miss. Marple (my personal favorite), an elderly spinster who uses her small town anecdotes to solve mysteries and of course, Hercule Poirot, Belgian detective with a remarkable mustache and stunning insight into human psychology.

Banner Credit: Marta

‘And Then There Were None’, most commonly considered as Agatha Christie’s masterpiece, features only a group of people invited on an island. The varying point of views allow the reader to see that each invitation comes from a different person that assumes various alias in order to convince the people to come to the island. And, one by one, each person dies. Each person on the island is rightly suspicious and it brings up questions such as: ‘Who is the killer?’ ‘Am I next?’ and ‘Why are we being killed?’ The answers to each of these questions is chilling but also utterly unpredictable. Other than this, however, I cannot add anything else. As Maurice Richardson wrote (correctly) in his review on The Observer: ‘We will also have to refrain from reviewing it thoroughly, as it is so full of shocks that even the mildest revelation would spoil some surprise from somebody and I am sure that you would rather have your entertainment kept fresh than criticism pure.’

‘And Then There Were None’ was hugely acclaimed upon its release and is Agatha Christie’s best-selling novel, the world’s best-selling mystery and one of the best-selling books of all times. Clearly not a book to miss out on.