Show him the danger and he would tackle it pluckily. He was not afraid in the open, only of the danger undefined and tinged with the supernatural.
And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie
Genre: Murder Mystery
About: Ten strangers are invited to an island, known for its mystery and glamour. But when they arrive there's no host or hostess to greet them. Only accusations that they each have a dark secret from their past. Then one by one they're murdered, until there are none.
The Good
The isolated troupe is done beautifully here. We switch POVs regularly enough and as usual with Christie there is great character work, lots of interesting backgrounds and motivations to run through. The suspense of wondering who will be the next to fall is a great hook to read on, especially matching up the deaths to the morbid nursery rhyme. I also enjoyed finding out bit by bit more about their past misdeeds and of course the mystery of who was behind it all is very satisfying.
The Bad
Unfortunately I remembered from the TV show who the culprit was so that took some of the anticipation out of the read. This is the third Christie I've read now and with the previous two I didn't know for certain who the murderer was and those books were really a desperate race to the finish. This one wasn't that, though it certainly still had suspense. I think there can be good re-read value to these mysteries, but the magic is really on the first go around.
The Somewhat Iffy
The murderer chose their victims, supposedly, based on level of guilt. So the least culpable went out first with relative little pain to their deaths and the most callous ones were left to last. But I do question this order. The third from last to die, in my mind, had done more good than bad compared to the other people there. And the first to die was quite similar to the third to last in the sense that they could both blame alcohol for their actions, yet this first to die felt far less guilt for what they'd done than the latter. The order just didn't add up to me. The judgement wasn't how I would have ranked them but perhaps that's the point: no-one should be taking justice into their own hands and killing by their perception of a person's guilt.
Overall
A classic for a reason, this has great atmosphere, an interesting cast of characters and if you don't know who the murderer is going into the story, it should stump you at least with the how they did it.
Comments