And Then There Were None

What an enjoyable read. Well spun story and nicely written.

Harper Collins delivers another splendid Special Edition with “And Then There Were None.” This is the second in this series I’ve purchased, the first one being “4.50 from Paddington.” The cover art is very modern yet is reminiscent of art deco styling. The inner paper art is attractive, if understated. The typeface is highly legible and easy on the eyes. The book is surprisingly lightweight, owing probably to the somewhat substandard paper which probably won’t hold up over time. It appears to be a heavier stock of paperback paper. There is some bleed through from the backside of pages. At this price point I would have expected a few pen and ink illustrations, but this is text only. These are my favorite two Christie books. I might buy some others in the Miss Marple series if I can find Special Edition versions that match these. Overall, pretty good price value with a handsome hard cover design. I only wish they’d sprung for better paper. Story Review: (Spoiler Alert) The original 1939 title was similar to “Ten Little Soldiers” but in wording that would be deemed highly offensive today, so I won’t present it here. This refers to a table decoration of ten soldiers who mysteriously disappear as the main characters are murdered,. These are related to a nursery rhyme, which was a popular Christie plot device. Unfortunately, the revised title “And Then There Were None” gives away the main plot twist before you read the first sentence: All of the characters are murdered. A better title would have been the politically correct “Ten Little Soldiers.” Curiously, the most popular 1945 movie adaptation also uses the title “And Then There Were None” but the storyline is changed so that two of the characters survive in order to supply the mandated Hollywood romantic subplot. So in the case of the movie, the title makes absolutely no sense. The main weakness of the book, in my view, is none of the characters are appealing. After all, they’ve all committed some kind of crime with no sign of remorse. The convention in most storytelling is to follow a main character but here, equal weight is given to the ten victims in order to tell their back story, so this leads to making reader less likely to connect with any one character. Christie’s earlier book, “Murder on the Orient Express,” which has a similar plot, features a detective as the central character giving the audience an appealing anchor to connect with. I think the average reader can figure out who the main culprit is early in the book, despite the author’s attempts to misdirect us. The pacing is quite good until we get down to the last three victims, then we have a rather odd acceleration in the action. Despite its minor flaws, it’s a good read and is often referred to as Christie’s “masterpiece.” It has enjoyed many movie and TV adaptations over the years and is a good introduction to Christie for those who are not familiar with her work. If you like this story, I think her best work in this style is the short story “Three Blind Mice,” which originated as a radio play in 1947. The stage play version, retitled “The Mousetrap,” is the world’s longest-running play, with more almost 30,000 performances since its debut in 1952. As of this writing, it continues to run in London’s West End.

Perfect

very good read, liked it

And Then There Were None----Spoilers----In the book, “ And Then There Were None”, by Agatha Christie ten people were invited out to work in a place called Soldier Island. They all had arrived and got acquainted with one another quickly. Guests soon had fallen upon a poem that was hung up throughout the house. It stated, “ Ten little soldier boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were Nine. Nine little soldier boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were Eight. Eight little soldier boys traveling in Devon; One said he’d stay there and then there were Seven. Seven little soldier boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were Six. Six little soldier boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were Five. Five little soldier boys going in for law; One got into chancery and then there were Four. Four little soldier boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were Three. Three little soldier boys walking in the Zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were Two. Two little soldier boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was One. One little soldier boy left all alone; He went and hanged himself. And then there were None.” Thinking nothing of this poem, the guests just continued settling in. Later in the same day they arrived, a record was played while they were all together. This record spoke of supposed murders that each guest committed. After this traumatizing event, the guests tried to figure out who exactly was behind this. Before they could find out for sure, an unfortunate situation took place. One of the guests had unexpectedly choked and died, or at least that’s what it looked liked at first glance. Upon further inspection, it was apparent that somebody had poisoned him. There was a murderer in the house and they needed to expose him or her before they killed anyone else. The book continues on, and so do the murders, which follow the poem that is displayed in the house. Overall, I did not really like this book. It had a relatively good storyline, but was extremely slow. It was also very predictable, and something that I personally had to force myself to continue reading. Although, I do think it would have been more enjoyable if I had read it and an earlier age. Also, since this book was written by Agatha Christie I expected an older language style that was difficult to understand, but this was not the case. It was a fairly easy read that did not take too long to get through, which helped the slow moving plot. Consequently, I could see why many people would enjoy this book due to the topic at hand, yet it was not as suspenseful as I would have liked. I found myself getting bored even during the parts that were made to be interesting. Ultimately, I personally would not recommend this book to children over the age of 12 or 13. It seemed to be directed more towards this age group. If it was rewritten to be faster moving with more plot-twists, this novel could have been better. Compared to other Agatha Christie books this was probably my least favorite. LK

Love all Agatha Christie books. Great mystery stories.

Christie's most popular work by far, this tale of ten people on an island killed one by one really is quite gripping. It's so easy to absolutely tear through the book as the mystery continues to become more and more intriguing and tense. You can definitely see why it became such a popular formula to the point of being the foundation of the slasher film genre and many mysteries since, including works released to this day. My only complaints are that it's a little short and the reveal is actually not as satisfying as I would've hoped but it's still worth a read for any mystery fan.

I’ve read several of Agatha’s books and this was by far the darkest of the group! Very good story, great characters, and a perfect plot. Can’t go wrong with this mystery.