From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

And Then There Were None

Agatha Christie

Start date: July 1, 2023

Finish date: August 7, 2023

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: This Christie classic is next in our Scenes of Classic Crime Challenge.
[close] This Christie classic is next in our Scenes of Classic Crime Challenge.

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Group Challenges

* Oct 25: A Murder Is Announced (1950) by Agatha Christie
By Susan · 3 posts · 8 views

last updated 6 minutes ago

* Oct 25: A Murder Is Announced (1950) - SPOILER Thread
By Susan · 1 post · 7 views

last updated Sep 14, 2025 10:32PM

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What Members Thought

Aug 02, 2019 Bev rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, vintage-mystery, british-mystery, mcpl-book, audionovel, bought-2019, agatha-christie, virtual-mount-tbr-2019

And Then There Were None (1939) is one of Agatha Christie's most famous mysteries and the plot is well-known among mystery fans. It regularly makes "Best Of" lists--from Best Crime & Mystery Novels to Best Books of the 20th Century to PBS's Great American Read. One would think that everyone would know the story by now. But I regularly find people in my life who don't--who have never read it. Or seen one of the adaptations. Or listened to it on audio. And every time I convince one of them to give ...more

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Sep 10, 2014 Bev rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, mystery, vintage-mystery, audionovel

Ten Little Indians (aka And Then There Were None, and originally published in 1939 under a more politically insensitive title) is one of my all-time favorite Agatha Christie novels. It is the ultimate locked room mystery (a "locked" island to be exact) or, in the broader term, impossible crime. The story is a familiar one to most mystery lovers: ten people of various backgrounds are invited for a holiday on Indian Island and at the end of the holiday everyone on the island is dead. Each has been Ten Little Indians (aka And Then There Were None, and originally published in 1939 under a more politically insensitive title) is one of my all-time favorite Agatha Christie novels. It is the ultimate locked room mystery (a "locked" island to be exact) or, in the broader term, impossible crime. The story is a familiar one to most mystery lovers: ten people of various backgrounds are invited for a holiday on Indian Island and at the end of the holiday everyone on the island is dead. Each has been lured there using a different bit of bait...but all for the same purpose--murder. Someone, using the name U. N. Owen, wants to kill them, apparently to provide justice for murders they have committed but which are untouchable by law. The first guest was poisoned after dinner. The second just didn't wake up in the morning. When the general was clubbed to death, they realized that the murderer was one of them. As their number grew smaller with each killing, their terror mounted. Was there no way out? Somehow, soon this vicious killer would have to be caught--before he had the pleasure of announcing: "and then there were none."

Even though I've read it many times, I still get nearly the same pleasure from it each time I reread it. Of course, the pleasure would be complete if I could conveniently forget the solution--but the story is told so well that I don't mind knowing ahead of time what will happen. I have had an ongoing practice of telling my friends whenever I find out that they plan to read this one for the first time, "If you can honestly tell me that you figured out who did it before the end of the story, I will buy you dinner--wherever you want to go." Thirty years and counting....I have not had to pay up yet.

I have read this so often and have seen so many reviews of it, that I don't really have much to say about the story itself. Instead, just a brief response to the audionovel version that I listened to this time. Norman Barrs, unknown to me prior to this audionovel, does an excellent job with a very smooth narration. He provides very distinct voices and intonation for each of the characters--making it easy to follow who is speaking. The almost four hours required to listen to the story flew by and I was completely immersed in the story once again. Christie has garnered five stars on all previous readings and I once again award both novel itself--and the reading--★★★★★

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks. ...more

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Nov 11, 2017 Bev rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, mystery, vintage-mystery, bought-2017

please see reviews on other editions

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May 19, 2017 Abbey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own, reviewed, myst-set-andor-auth-uk, myst-fems-project, vintage, suspense-thriller, guardian-1000-novels

This is one of my favorite Christies, another in her long line of stories with improbably complicated plots, creepy "big house" settings, and almost - but not quite - stock characters.

A group of strangers find themselves on a lonely island (that they can't leave for several days) and one-by-one they are killed off. A true classic now, at the time there was great uproar as to her plot. It may seem odd to current readers but when she wrote this in the late 1930s she was not only at the top of her ...more

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Aug 11, 2017 Bev rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: bought-2017, british-mystery, mystery, vintage-mystery, agatha-christie

Please see my review of another edition.

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Feb 04, 2018 Paperbackreader rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: all-collections, read-but-unowned, british, classic, mystery, mysteries-set-in-isolated-places

I read the play "And Then There Were None" ages ago and loved it. I was very reluctant to read the novel as I knew the similarities and differences between the play and the novel version of the story. However, there comes a point when you simply succumb and read the unread works of your favorite author. That time has come for me. The play and the novel have the same flavor and yet they are different. It's a very, very clever book. Hats off to Christie. How she managed to create such convoluted y ...more

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