And Then There Were None

Murder mystery has been a staple genre for decades. And Agatha Christie, its reigning empress, has conquered the hearts and minds of countless readers. Christie is such a popular writer that she is only outsold by William Shakespeare and the Bible! Not to mention, the recent trends in true crime have been a catalyst for an already thriving fan base.

Ever since Agatha Christie introduced Hercule Poirot, readers have been captivated by her work. And it's not hard to see why: Christie's prose and genius storytelling can keep even the calmest and most intelligent readers on edge and second-guess themselves with every page turn. No novel achieves this feat more brilliantly than Agatha Christie's magnum opus: And Then There Were None.

Being one of the most popular mystery novels, And Then There Were None is notorious for being one of Christie's hardest novels to write. I’ve tried my hand at writing a few short stories, and I was bewildered at the novel’s plot. The entire time I was reading, it felt like Christie was guiding me through a labyrinth with a million dead-ends that would’ve ruined the story. But in all of her literary brilliance, Christie seems to find the perfect ending to this mystery, though it’s hard to imagine the amount of blood, sweat, and tears that went into writing this monster of a novel.

The book begins with a level-headed judge, a former governess, a down-on-his-luck ex-military captain, a cold old woman, a retired British Army General, a successful doctor, a care-free young man driving his beloved sports car, and a private investigator arriving at Soldier Island for a relaxing summer getaway. They are all welcomed by Thomas and Ethel Rogers, the butler and chef who work for the mysterious owner of Soldier Island. 

But their vacation gets turned upside down when guests start dying in ways eerily similar to the nursery rhyme found in each of their bedrooms. Now everyone must work together and expose their darkest secrets if they want to stop the killer and make it off the island alive. 

Aside from the novel’s ingenious plot and suspense, there is a fascinating moral debate about the definition of killing someone. Does it only count when you are the one doing the killing? What about when you intentionally let someone die? 

For example, one of the characters in the novel (I won’t say who) withholds live-saving medicine from someone in their care. Technically, this character didn’t kill the person in their care because they didn’t do anything to begin with. However, they still chose to when they knew that someone was going to die because of their inaction.

Here’s another example: another character in the book (I still won’t say which person) finds out that their maid got pregnant and isn’t married. This goes against the character’s moral compass, and they decide to kick the maid out of their house. This character later finds out that the maid they fired took her own life because she didn’t have any other option. Again, this legally doesn’t qualify as a murder, but ethically? That’s a completely different question.

It’s a fascinating topic and made an amazing subplot for the story, especially as you see the characters responsible for these murders-that-are-legally-not-murders slowly get picked off one by one.

Let me know if there are any other books you want me to review or if there are any major, spoiler-free details about the book that I missed in the comments. Happy reading!