And Then There Were None
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Review by Layton Percy Jones
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And Then There Were None
Agatha Christie
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Where to start really, this is one of the rare Christie books where we don’t get to see the great detective that is Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple or the lesser great detectives that are Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. This is the first Agatha Christie book I bought and read and was an original copy of the play version Ten Little Niggers I have read this play well over a hundred times, but never read it in novel form.
This book has been turned into a film more than any other Christie book. My favourite being the 1948 Rene Clair version starring Barry Fitzgerald and Walter Houston (grandfather of Angelica Houston). Even the adult comedy cartoon Family Guy did a pastiche of it.
And Then There Were None is the story of ten individuals who are invited to an isolated house on Indian Island/Soldier Island,(depends which version you have) Devon. During their first dinner together, a recorded message accuses each of them of a terrible crime. One by one, they begin to die. One of guests must be the killer, but who is it? The idea for And Then There Were None is so simple yet it must’ve been extremely difficult to execute.
A child’s nursery rhyme is placed practically in all the rooms, with the rhyme telling us how ten little Indian boys get killed one by one, as do the guests. After the murder of the general the seven remaining guests realise that the murderer must be one of them. Whilst reading the book it gets you thinking well it must be so and so, and then oops they’re bumped off. Right up until the very end you has the reader is in suspense then BANG the last couple of pages when the murder is revealed. Then I thought how the hell does Christie do it.
I have read all of Christie’s work, love them all, but this one I think is her cleverest.
Over the years there has been a lot of snobbery about Christie’s work, but if we didn’t have Christie we would never have, Ian Rankin, P D James, and scores of others.
Chrsitie’s works have been adapted and sold more than any other author. I salute you Dame Agatha Christie, may your reign as the Queen of the Crime novel forever.
If you enjoyed this read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – Another Christie masterpiece
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​Excerpt from Wikipedia.com
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote six romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for the 66 detective novels and more than 15 short story collections she wrote under her own name, most of which revolve around the investigations of such characters as Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple and Tommy and Tuppence. She also wrote the world's longest-running play The Mousetrap.[1]​
Born to a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon, Christie served in a hospital during the First World War before marrying and starting a family in London. Although initially unsuccessful at getting her work published, in 1920, The Bodley Head press published her novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring the character of Poirot. This launched her literary career.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly 4 billion copies, and her estate claims that her works rank third, after those of William Shakespeare and the Bible, as the world's most widely published books.[2] According to Index Translationum, Christie is the most translated individual author, and her books have been translated into at least 103 languages.[3] And Then There Were None is Christie's best-selling novel with 100 million sales to date, making it the world's best-selling mystery ever, and one of the best-selling books of all time.[4] In 1971, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.[5]
Christie's stage play The Mousetrap holds the record for the longest initial run: it opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in London on 25 November 1952 and as of 2012 is still running after more than 25,000 performances.[6] In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's highest honour, the Grand Master Award, and in the same year Witness for the Prosecution was given an Edgar Award by the MWA for Best Play. Many of her books and short stories have been filmed, and many have been adapted for television, radio, video games and comics.
