And Then There Were None
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie is a legend in the world of mystery for a very good reason- her imagination is incredibly inventive in this classic twist on the locked room mystery. The story opens with a series of brief sketches of the main cast, handy to refer back to later, as they converge upon Indian Island, to which they have been summoned (mysteriously, of course) from a variety of half-known acquaintances. The story unfolds from there as the guests, each of whom harbors a dark secret from their past, are murdered one-by-one in line with the words of a children's nursery rhyme. Christie's prose is straightforward and tells the story without distracting embellishments, moving swiftly from frame to frame without losing the reader. Her characters, despite a discouraging tendency to notice how things are "just like in books", adapt to the situation at hand and adopt an amusing rapport. Indeed, the dark humor in this book (usually at the expense of its characters) comes as a pleasant surprise and itself produces an interesting reaction in the reader when juxtaposed with very inventive modes of murder.
And Then There Were None employs a strange sort of suspense, for the ending is more or less exposed by the title. The fun comes from observing the increasing levels of paranoia exhibited by the colorful characters and in following their reasoning while attempting to pull the pieces of the puzzle together. The inevitable Big Reveal puts a philosophical twist on things while inviting a second, closer reading and speaking to the efforts employed in attempting to figure the mystery out. But within this starkly humorous story there lurks a philosophical examination of justice and of culpability. Christie weaves in a bit of deeper thinking without burdening the story, and at the end the book's various elements come together seamlessly, the author's ingenuity on grand display. And Then There Were None is a dark, funny look at justice and human nature that is a great mystery but, more importantly, a highly entertaining little book.
Grade: A
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie is a legend in the world of mystery for a very good reason- her imagination is incredibly inventive in this classic twist on the locked room mystery. The story opens with a series of brief sketches of the main cast, handy to refer back to later, as they converge upon Indian Island, to which they have been summoned (mysteriously, of course) from a variety of half-known acquaintances. The story unfolds from there as the guests, each of whom harbors a dark secret from their past, are murdered one-by-one in line with the words of a children's nursery rhyme. Christie's prose is straightforward and tells the story without distracting embellishments, moving swiftly from frame to frame without losing the reader. Her characters, despite a discouraging tendency to notice how things are "just like in books", adapt to the situation at hand and adopt an amusing rapport. Indeed, the dark humor in this book (usually at the expense of its characters) comes as a pleasant surprise and itself produces an interesting reaction in the reader when juxtaposed with very inventive modes of murder.
And Then There Were None employs a strange sort of suspense, for the ending is more or less exposed by the title. The fun comes from observing the increasing levels of paranoia exhibited by the colorful characters and in following their reasoning while attempting to pull the pieces of the puzzle together. The inevitable Big Reveal puts a philosophical twist on things while inviting a second, closer reading and speaking to the efforts employed in attempting to figure the mystery out. But within this starkly humorous story there lurks a philosophical examination of justice and of culpability. Christie weaves in a bit of deeper thinking without burdening the story, and at the end the book's various elements come together seamlessly, the author's ingenuity on grand display. And Then There Were None is a dark, funny look at justice and human nature that is a great mystery but, more importantly, a highly entertaining little book.
Grade: A
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