And Then There Were None Review

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE BY AGATHA CHRISTIE

MY RATING: 

 THE BOOK

And Then There Were None is a detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939 under the title Ten Little Niggers and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company in January 1940 under the title And Then There Were None.

It is Christie’s best-selling novel with 100 million sales to date, making it the world’s best-selling mystery and the seventh most popular book of all time. It has been adapted into several plays, films, and a video game.

THE PLOT

“Ten…” Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion off the Devon coast by a mysterious “U.N. Owen”.

“Nine…” At dinner a recorded message accuses each of them in turn of having a guilty secret, and by the end of the night one of the guests is dead.

“Eight…” Stranded by a violent storm, and haunted by an ancient nursery rhyme counting down one by one… as one by one… they begin to die.

“Seven…” Which amongst them is the killer and will any of them survive?

MY THOUGHTS

To begin with I’d like you to meet the soldiers: Vera Claythorne, a former governess, thinks she has been hired as a secretary; Philip Lombard, an adventurer, and William Blore, an ex-detective, think they have been hired to look out for trouble over the weekend; Dr. Armstrong thinks he has been hired to look after the wife of the island’s owner. Emily Brent, General Macarthur, Tony Marston, and Judge Wargrave think they are going to visit old friends. When they arrive on the island, the guests are greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, the butler and housekeeper, who report that the host, someone they call Mr. Owen, will not arrive until the next day. And so it begins…

To me, it was very confusing and fustrated at first to remember all the characters. I was so lost at the first 100 or so pages, although Agatha has written one by one who was who, and how each of them got their invitation. It is my first time reading an Agatha Christie’s novel and I guess I needed time to get comfortable with her writting. Not that there is anything wrong with it, it was an easy-to-read book and a total page turner. To be honest, after I got used to all the people involved in the storyline, and thankfully as the story unfolded, all the more less characters were left for me to remember, I started to like it. Overall, I enjoyed it but I can’t say I loved it, that’s why I am giving it 3,5 bulbs.

It was a fun read, but maybe too light for my taste. The only part worth reading, in my opinion, was the epilogue, were everything that I was longing to be explained finally did! Maybe if I read more of hers I could even guess the killer and then it might get more interesting. The whole book was like “Cluedo” meets “Guess Who”, an intelligent and fun game with words, I played it and lost but trying to guess who was it behind all this, was the thing that kept me reading this book. Curiousity may have killed the cat and everyone in this book, but I am alive and well and I am wishing you a happy Sunday.

Thanks for taking the time to read it.

I’d love to read your comments bellow.