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And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None

ClassicsCrime
Pages
304
Published
1939
Language
English

Synopsis

Ten strangers, each invited under a different pretext, arrive on an isolated island off the Devon coast. None of them has met their absent host, the elusive U. N. Owen, and as the boat that brought them departs, they settle in for what promises to be an unusual stay. After dinner on the first evening, a recorded voice fills the room, accusing every guest of having caused a death and escaped justice. Soon afterward, one of them dies. As a storm cuts the island off from the mainland, the remaining guests realize their deaths are being staged to mirror the verses of an old nursery rhyme that hangs framed in each bedroom. One by one, the survivors fall, and with no way to summon help and no sign of any other living soul, suspicion turns inward. Each person studies the others, certain that the killer is among them, while the rhyme counts steadily down. Trapped, watched, and unable to trust anyone, they must reckon with the secrets that brought them here even as the circle of the living shrinks. Christie builds a closed, methodical puzzle in which guilt, fear, and isolation press on every character, and the question is not only who will be next but how anyone could orchestrate such a sequence of deaths on a deserted island. It is a tightly constructed account of crime and consequence with no series detective to set things right.

Prose complexity
4/10

Vibe

TenseMysteriousDark
Locked Room

Genres

Classics Crime Suspense Mystery Historical Fiction Psychological Thriller Thriller

About the author

A
Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is the best-selling novelist of all time and the writer the world calls the "Queen of Crime." Born Agatha Miller in Torquay, Devon, she came to fiction on a dare: her sister Madge bet she could not write a convincing detective story, and the result, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introduced the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Her dispensing work in a hospital pharmacy during the First World War, repeated again during the Second, gave her the expert knowledge...

Characters

Philip LombardProtagonist

A resourceful soldier of fortune who arrives armed and wary, candid about his own ruthlessness.

Vera ClaythorneProtagonist

A governess invited to the island under a false pretext; she is one of the ten people targeted by Wargrave's plan.

U. N. OwenAntagonist

The unseen host who lured everyone to the island; the initials read as 'Unknown' and the host never appears to greet the guests.

Lawrence WargraveSupporting

A retired judge with a cold, analytical mind who takes a leading role in interpreting the deaths.

Dr Edward ArmstrongSupporting

A Harley Street physician whose medical expertise becomes valuable as the deaths mount.

All characters in And Then There Were None

Frequently asked questions

  • Is this the best-selling mystery novel of all time?

    Yes. And Then There Were None is widely cited as the best-selling crime or mystery novel ever written, with more than 100 million copies sold. It also ranks among the best-selling books of any kind in history.

  • Why has the title changed over the years?

    The novel was first published in the United Kingdom in 1939 under a title that used a racial slur drawn from a then-popular counting rhyme. It was later reissued as 'Ten Little Indians' and eventually settled, permanently, on 'And Then There Were None,' the closing line of the rhyme.

  • What is the nursery rhyme that structures the book?

    A counting-down rhyme hangs framed in each guest's bedroom, and the deaths on the island are arranged to echo its successive verses. The book's final title is taken directly from the rhyme's last line.

  • Does the book feature one of Christie's famous detectives?

    No. Unlike most of her work, this novel has no series sleuth such as Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. It is a closed-circle mystery in which the trapped characters must make sense of events themselves.

  • Did Agatha Christie adapt it for the stage with a different ending?

    Yes. Christie wrote a stage adaptation that premiered in the 1940s with a less bleak ending than the novel, because she and the producers felt audiences needed a more hopeful conclusion. Many later film and stage versions followed this altered ending rather than the book's.

  • How faithful was the 2015 BBC adaptation?

    The BBC's 2015 three-part television series is noted for restoring the original novel's grim conclusion rather than the softened stage ending used by most earlier adaptations. It is among the few screen versions to preserve the book's bleak resolution.

  • Where and when is the novel set?

    The story takes place over a few days on an isolated island off the coast of Devon, England, accessible only by boat. A storm soon cuts the island off entirely, stranding the guests with no means of escape or rescue.

  • Did Christie consider it a difficult book to write?

    Yes. Christie regarded it as one of the most difficult of her books to construct because of its intricate plotting and tightly orchestrated structure. The challenge lay in engineering the sequence of deaths convincingly.

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