And Then There Were None

Didn't think I would be scared by an Agatha Christie novel, but here we are. Also I thought I was so smart and had figured it out, but I was totally wrong. Well played, Ms. Christie.

Clever, with a well-developed and carefully created atmosphere. Gets progressively more suspenseful. There are a few elements I'm not convinced by, but I enjoyed reading it, so quibbles after the fact seem churlish.

You don't get to be the the world's best-selling mystery novel and seventh most popular book of all time with over 100 million copies sold without some solid chops. Christie has got game for days.

This was just a wonderfully nostalgic read for me. It reminded me of all the Agatha Christie I'd devoured as a kid, pulling story after story from the library. Poirot, Marples and more have occupied me for many a quiet hour and yet I'd somehow missed this one.

A straight ahead thriller that announces from the onset (at least in my edition) that Christie was playing fair. That it would have a perfectly reasonable explanation with clues for a discerning reader to perhaps suss out the mastermind. That alone would have been a feat, but add 10 guests on a mysterious island slowly meeting their demise in line with the children's poem that girds the story and it's nothing short of a wonder.

Christie wastes no time. This is a slim mystery that's tight as a drum delineating the 10 characters, their past crimes that landed them on the island, and their slow, inevitable elimination until there were none. Just a wonderfully cozy (yet murderous) reading experience.

Just as good as I remember it being in 7th grade! Once I got about a third of the way through, I couldn't stop until I finished (having not remembered the outcome). It's a short, quick read so it won't ruin your bedtime to get to the end. Very fun! But also creepy.

Exciting!

The story was magnificent. I had my heart in my mouth all the time of reading the book. I'll surely read it again.

Agatha Christie has been in a tight place and managed to get out of it.

I'll be honest - I couldn't predict who the murderer was.

They don't call her the queen of mystery for nothing, that's for sure. I had no idea what was coming, and i frequently found myself stopping to re-examine who i thought was behind it all. Needless to say... I was never right. All hail Agatha, this was amazing.

Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle

I do not think I will ever be a Christie fan. I'd read a couple of the early ones and was not impressed. So I wanted to try this, some say her masterpiece, and found it similarly ho-hum. I don't think it's just that the premise is so well known that the element of surprise is lost; I simply don't care about any of the characters, they are so clearly mere shadows made to hang the puzzle on. I enjoy mystery stories where, however preposterous the plot, the people ring true to me and I can feel some kind of connection to them. With this one, they were as anonymous as the china figures that got lost or smashed each time one died.

I'm going to try Murder on the Orient Express since I picked up a free copy of that, and maybe a Miss Marple story, and if those don't turn out to be better, I'm done.

I had not read any Agatha Christie before, and I have to say what a pleasure it was to start here. I listened to the audiobook version, performed by Dan Stevens. It was a fantastic performance, reminiscent more of radio drama than of a pure audiobook. For the last several hours I just could not pull myself away from it.

An amazing and intriguing novel from beginning to end. The way in which the characters are presented and the atmosphere is extremely fluid and real.

The novel maintains you with the doubt of who is the murder to the very last page.

A must-read novel <3

I tip my hat to you, Ms Christie.

My first experience with a Christie novel was ... less than pleasant. It was a summer school assignment. Read “A Mysterious Affair at Styles” and create a book report on it. I distinctly remember reaching out to the teacher to confirm if the book report had to be positive. She said, “Be honest and just write about your experience with the book” and boy was I honest about how much I despised it.

My early teen self was quite critical of her work and her flimsy approach to “murder mystery”. I am not sure why but I had a much greater expectation and demand from the book. I recall while researching supplementary material for the report that Styles was her first book, written as a challenge with her sister who thought she can't write a murder mystery. Ms Christie claimed to have won the challenge but I'd have contested that victory. Since that experience, I stayed off the famous murder mysteries of Agatha Christie and the eccentric adventures of Hercule Poirot.

Until last year, when I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook of The ABC Murders. I thought it was the dramatic radio show enactment that made is enjoyable. In the spirit of a new year, I wanted to give Agatha Christie and her work a fresh start. When I picked up “And Then There Were None”, mostly because it was heavily discounted at a local bookstore, I was not expecting to enjoy it this much. I read the book in three sitting on a weekday after work. And supplemented that with the BBC mini-series. Both were such fantastically executed. I understand why this was voted as the favourite Agatha Christie Murder Mystery. And you bet I am going to read the other two on that list.

Murder of Roger Ackroyd, here I come!

He said:

“It's damned queer why I didn't like the book. Maybe it's something to do with the

IV

Writing.

I am working my way through her books and so far I've loved more than hated

My first Christie book, and it did not disappoint.

As kids one of my closest friends would read Agatha Christie like it was going out of fashion and I would struggle to read just a few single pages from a comic or magazine. As an adult I've finally found my way to read (using a Kindle with the right font, size and line height) and have finally entered the world of Christie.

I was quite surprised at how easy this book was to read (written in 1939), how easy it was to just keep reading and how it kept my interest. A wonderful murder mystery that initially had me guessing and unsure, then around half way decided that I knew who ‘dun it, and by 75% I was at a loss again.

The book doesn't go deeply into word prose, but keeps the pace on who would end up under the chopping block next leaving us guessing: who, when and how!

I do also wonder how much of modern day media bases it's murder mystery on Chritie's work as I could conjure up images of the characters and the scenes quite easily in my mind.

Good stuff. Will be adding some of her popular books to my reading list.

really fun

A second reading of this British mystery classic. Christie is forthright in her intentions to craft puzzled and intricate plots with an air of unease but, more so, with focus on the act of solving. The mother of the modern mystery novel knew that letting the reader work through the clues could be enough to carry a story all on its own.

Brilliant for its time and kept me guessing throughout! I loved the atmosphere and tension Christie easily created. The whole exposition in the epilogue was a bit tedious but I imagine at the time readers wouldn't have minded as much.

Hot Diggity Dog. Had me on my TOES. I love Agatha Christie and wow has she blown me away yet again. I do believe this is her best selling mystery, but I'd never gotten around to it because. Well I just do whatever, really. But this was a bookclub pick and I just HAVE to say. What a wild, absolutely wild ending. There's two epilogues! What do you know. Had me anxious. Lots of dialogue, and subtle clues and references then I'm only just realizing seemed so peculiar because of how it ended. Woo! What a ride.

Story : 10 people get on an island, only to find out that they are dying one by one, mysteriously. The introduction sets the characters... I had to write down every character so I can remember them. When that tape starts to give informations, I was hooked. The ending was kinda obvious for me, but I didn't mind seeing how a criminal thinks. That poem was also very creative...

Characters : There are 10... 11 if you count that sailor. Everyone has a different personality, and I liked it. Everyone has a dark past, and I liked it. I don't know what to say... they were fine, criminals being killed. Yeah, the ways they died were sometimes very intriguing, but sometimes so lame.

Overall : Considering that this is my first Agatha Christie story, I was pleased by what I got. I like her style and can't wait to start Poirot's adventures.

Three Agatha Christie books in 1 ... And Then There Were None, Crooked House, and Endless Night.

Christie will never be my favorite author, but drawing room mysteries will never be my favorite genre either, so...

I joke that you should do a shot every time Christie is racist. Don't come at me. She was a product of her time, and the original title of And Then There Were None could not be any more eye-poppingly horrible. I've never read a Christie novel without a racist moment or moments. I accept these are the price of admission, or baked into the cake, or something.

I did like that each novel was genuinely different, felt genuinely different, than every other novel. That's amazing, really. Crooked House was my favorite, but I would say Endless Night holds up the best in having tropes and twists that would still be used, and work, today. At the same time, this is what also makes it perhaps most predictable – the things you would assume in a modern novel are the things you can assume here, making the murderer so obvious that you immediately dismiss this person as being too obvious. And then, yeah. Even with that, I appreciated that there was clues I missed. I figured out the general thing, but there were other details in plain sight I only got when it was all laid out.

And Then There Were None was my least favorite, and felt the most dated for me. I cared about and rooted for no one, which in all fairness makes sense as everyone was meant to be a villain. Still, none of the characters came alive for me, and it was the epitome of plot at the expense of character, and I'm a fan of character above all.

The book was fine actually not that good or maybe I expected too much it wasn't like the suspense blew my mind

Wow, this was freaking amazing!

And Then There Were None may be in the running for a spot on my list of Top 10 Favorite Books of All Time That Doesn't Include Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. I'll have to reread it soon.