Review And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Content Summary

In this review, we will examine the work called Then There Were None by British writer Agatha Christie, one of the important items of the detective genre.

And Then There Were None Price Comparison

Who is Agatha Christie?

British writer, whose full name is Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller Christie Mollowan, is one of the most important names in detective literature.

A later colorized photo of Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie, who lost her father at a young age, was home-schooled by her mother and had a lonely childhood. Agatha, who started to write stories at a young age, was sent to Paris to study singing and piano at the age of 16, but she gave up on this in a short time.

She married pilot colonel Archibald Christie in 1914. Their daughter Rosalind was born from this marriage in 1919. The couple dissolved their marriage in 1926. Misfortunes abound. Agatha Christie will also lose her mother in the same year. But in 1927, during his visits to the Middle East, he would meet Archaeologist Max Mallowan, and they would be together during his travels to the excavation sites in Syria and Iraq, and then they would get married.

Agatha Christie and Archibald Christie

Agatha Christie, who loves to read despite her dyslexia, will write a novel called The Mysterious Affair at Styles, thinking that she will write better crime stories than she reads. This book was published in 1920 after several rejections. The work is the first work that includes Hercule Poirot, one of the fictional characters created by Agatha Christie. Hercule Poirot is intelligent, sarcastic and critical of the culture of the British upper class.

The work and the character she created were highly appreciated. Another character she created on top of that is Miss Marple. Miss Marple, a charming old amateur detective, was also very popular. After marrying his second wife, who is an archaeologist and travels a lot, Christie’s novels began to take place mostly in international settings by the 1930s.

One of the most important mysteries about Agatha Christie is that she disappeared in 1926 and was not heard from for a while. The fact that his car crashed into a tree by a lake also worried his fans. However, Christie appeared 11 days after this event and continued her life without any explanation. When we look at it with today’s glasses, we guess that this may be an advertisement attempt but still there are many unknowns.

Summary of Then There Were None

Ten people from different professions, who have never known each other before, receive a letter from which they do not know the sender. They are invited to spend their holidays on Negro Island, off Devon, about which there are different speculations.

Cover of And There Were None by William Morrow

All guests are curious about this island and its hosts. Arriving on the island by ferry, they are greeted by the servants Mr and Mrs Rogers, who had arrived two days before the other eight guests and had prepared the mansion. The guests, who are informed that the hosts will come to the island the next day, settle into their rooms.

There is a children’s poem called Ten Little Negroes in their room. After settling in, they come together for dinner. There are also ten black statuettes in the dining room. Guests; Doctor Armstrong, General Mac Arthur, Henry Blore, Lieutenant Lombard, Vera Claythorne, Anthony Marston, Emily Brent, and Judge Wagrave.

After the meal is over, while the guests are waiting for their coffee, Mr. Rogers puts a record on the gramophone with the instructions given by the host in his letter. The voice on the gramophone announces to everyone in the house the dates of the deaths of the people they had killed in their past.

Everyone is surprised. They try to explain themselves to others, they make excuses. While everyone is talking about her innocence, Ms. Rogers falls ill during the argument. After taking him to his room, Mr. Marston collapses to the ground, taking a sip of his drink. When they looked at the glass, they found cyanide at the bottom.

With everyone on the nerves, they realize that one of the little figurines has disappeared. Everyone anxiously tells the truth about the accusations against them. They have caused the death of someone in some way, but none of them are intentional acts.

While the guests were asleep, a plan was made to return by boat, which was said to be brought to the island the next morning and brought supplies every morning. A few hours after everyone is in bed, Mr. Rogers comes to Doctor Armstrong’s room to say that he has not been able to wake his wife. They realize that the woman has been poisoned. Another black statuette is missing.

In the morning, the guests meeting for breakfast realize that General Mac Arthur is not among them. When they found him, he was dead and one of the figurines was missing. Everyone blames each other.

When they woke up the next morning, the servant Mr. Rogers had not come to wake anyone. They find him dead with an ax in his head by the woods. One more statue was missing and six people remained.

Feeling tired after breakfast, Emily finds Brent dead in her armchair. One of Doctor Armstrong’s syringes is missing, and it turns out that Emily Brent has been injected with poison. Everyone has in mind someone they believe is the murderer. When Vera Claythorne enters her room to rest, she screams. She encounters a moss hanging in her room. Judge Wagrave is not among the guests at the sound. When they go to his room, they find him dead as well.

Now only four people remain. Doctor Armstrong, Vera Claythorne, Henry Blore and Lieutenant Lombard. Everyone locks the door of their room and retreats to their room. Henry Blore hears a noise from outside, realizes that Armstrong is not in his room and informs the others. Even if they search for him, they cannot find him. Now there are only 3 persons.

They spend the day in the open air on the island trying to report to the mainland. Vera Claythorne doesn’t want to go back to the mansion. Henry Blore returns for dinner. They hear a noise. Mr. Blore is also dead.

After this incident, Lieutenant Lombard notices something washed up on the beach. This is Doctor Armstrong’s corpse. Seeing this, Vera Claythorne can’t stand it anymore. He snatches the weapon belonging to Henry Blore, which disappeared for a while and later reappeared, from Lieutenant Lombard’s hand and kills him. Returning to the mansion, he breaks the last remaining statuette and goes to his room.

When he enters the room, a rope suspended from the ceiling welcomes him. Vera Claythorne hangs herself, unable to withstand the heavy burdens of the past and the events taking place on this island. All ten guests are dead, she. Just like in children’s poetry. The police, who reached the island after all that had happened, could not solve this mysterious case. Until a handwritten document found by a fisherman at sea. This document explains all the facts and deaths.

The Topic of Then There Were None

This adventure, which begins with ten strangers invited to Negro Island by mysterious hosts they do not know, are accused of the deaths they have caused in their past, this adventure tells the mysterious death of ten strangers one by one. This work, which constantly turns the reader on the opposite side of who the murderer is, has an unforgettable and timeless place in the memory of crime lovers.

Books by Agatha Christie

Then There Were None Quotes

“Ten little nigger boys went out to dine;

One choked his little self and then there were nine.

Nine little nigger boys sat up very late;

One overslept himself and then there were eight.

Eight little nigger boys travelling in devon;

One said he’d stay there and then there were seven.

Seven little nigger boys chopping up sticks;

One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.

Six little nigger boys playing with a hive;

a bumble bee stung one and then there were five. 

Five little nigger boys going in for law;

One got into chancery and then there were four.

Four little nigger boys going out to sea;

a red herring swallowed one and then there were three.

Three little nigger boys walking in the zoo;

a big bear hugged one and then there were two.

Two little nigger boys sitting in the sun;

One got frizzled up and then there was one.

One little nigger boy left all alone;

He went out and hanged himself and then there were none.”

General Evaluation Then There Were None

This book was the first Agatha Christie book I’ve read. Although I have heard his name a lot, I have not had the opportunity to read any of his books. So I started the book without any expectations. This one-hundred and ninety-one-page adventure hooked me from the very beginning.

My favorite feature of the book is that it constantly asks the reader “Who is behind these events?”, “Who will die now?”, “Who is the murderer?” He made you think and made you always mark a character as a murderer. By paying attention to even the smallest details in the thoughts or backgrounds of the characters, I made inferences and identified a new murderer all the time, and I was wrong every time.

I have come across a work that arouses my curiosity with its clear narration and never leaves me with the story. In summary, as someone who likes detective works, I would recommend this book not only to crime lovers but to all readers.

Books of Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is like a detective factory. The title of the book “Ten Little Niggers” was later changed to “Then There Were None” by the Agatha Christie Foundation, on the grounds that it was racist. With this information, the complete list of his numerous works are as follows

• The Mysterious Affair at Styles
• The Murder on the Links
• While the Light Lasts
• Poirot Investigates
• Poirot’s Early Cases
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
• The Big Four
• The Mystery of the Blue Train
• Black Coffee
• Peril at End House
• Lord Edgware Dies
• Murder on the Orient Express
• Three Act Tragedy
• Death in the Clouds
• The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories
• The A.B.C. Murders
• Murder in Mesopotamia
• Cards on the Table
• Problem at Pollensa Bay
• Murder in the Mews
• Dumb Witness
• Death on the Nile
• Appointment with Death
• Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
• Sad Cypress
• One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
• Evil Under the Sun
• Five Little Pigs
• The Hollow
• The Labours of Hercules
• Taken at the Flood
• Mrs McGinty’s Dead
• After the Funeral
• Hickory Dickory Dock
• Dead Man’s Folly
• Cat Among the Pigeons
• The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
• The Clocks
• Third Girl
• Hallowe’en Party
• Elephants Can Remember
• Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case
• The Murder at the Vicarage
• The Thirteen Problems aka The Tuesday Club Murders
• Miss Marple’s Final Cases
• The Body in the Library
• The Moving Finger
• Sleeping Murder
• A Murder Is Announced
• They Do It with Mirrors aka Murder with Mirrors
• A Pocket Full of Rye
• Greenshaw’s Folly
• 4.50 from Paddington aka What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw.
• The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side
• A Caribbean Mystery
• At Bertram’s Hotel
• Nemesis
• The Secret Adversary
• Partners in Crime – Short story Collection.
• N or M?
• By the Pricking of My Thumbs
• Postern of Fate
• The Secret of Chimneys
• The Seven Dials Mystery
• Murder is Easy
• Towards Zero
• The Man in the Brown Suit
• Sparkling Cyanide
• The Mysterious Mr. Wuin
• The Hound of Death
• The Listerdale Mystery
• Paker Pyne Investigates
• Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories
• While the Light Lasts and Other Stories
• There Blind Mice
• The Floating Admiral
• The Sittaford Mystery
• Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?
• And Then There Were None
• Death Comes as the End
• Crooked House
• They Came to Baghdad
• Destination Unknown
• Ordeal by Innocence
• The Pale House
• Endless Night
• Passenger to Frankfurt
• Giant’s Bread
• Unfinished Portrait
• Absent in The Spring
• The Rose and THE Yew Tree
• A Daughter’s Daughter
• The Burden
• Come, Tell Me How You Live
• Star Over Bethlehem
• Agatha Christie: An Autobiography
• The Grand Tour: Around the world in the Queen of Mystery

References

https://www.all-about-agatha-christie.com/agatha

https://study.com/academy/lesson/agatha-christie