June 2022 Group Read (spoiler thread): And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

[Randy]

Hi, all.

Here's the spoiler thread for Nancy's discussion of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

Good reading!

[Andrew]

About two thirds of the way through, I started thinking Anthony Marston was the killer. He had kicked off right at the beginning, supposedly poisoned, and then carried off to some room.

While everyone was searching the house and the island for the killer, a supposed eleventh person, no one ever went back to check on Marston. What if he wasn't really dead?

My only problem with that theory was that Marston didn't have the wherewithal or the interest to compile the dossier of crimes that the killer sought to avenge.

I started thinking the killer might be Wargrave the judge, or Blore the ex-cop. Who else could gain access to the other characters' personal histories? Who else would care enough to look?

But I couldn't find enough evidence to implicate either one of them in the body of the story.

One of my favorite parts of the book was this:

Four little soldier boys going out to sea;
A red herring swallowed one and then there were Three.

I wondered how the author was going to pull that one off. Was one character actually going to be swallowed by a fish? And I thought, If the red herring is here, I should pay attention, because the false clue, in its attempt to divert me, may be able to point me toward the truth.

I didn't get the red herring bit until reading Wargrave's letter at the end. Armstrong being taken in (swallowed) by Wargrave's duplicity was a very clever twist in an already clever book.

I really wonder how Christie plotted this out. It must have been quite a puzzle, and I can see why she was pleased with herself for solving it. Her solution has please a lot of readers over the years.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Andrew wrote: "About two thirds of the way through, I started thinking Anthony Marston was the killer. He had kicked off right at the beginning, supposedly poisoned, and then carried off to some room.

While eve..."

I have to say that I gained a new level of admiration for Christie and for this story after watching several different film adaptations of the novel. Just FYI, the one that comes closest to the true spirit of the book is the 2015 miniseries done by the BBC.

[Patty]

I’ve read several re-imaginings of this book by other authors. What gets to me, is each time I read one, I wind up wondering who breached the “locked room” to kill everybody.

[Maryann]

I’m a bit confused on the discussion timeline; how long is it open? Thanks in advance.

[Woman Reading]

I had seen the 1940s black & white version and the 2015 BBC One productions, and they weren't easily forgotten while reading this. I did, of course, note how the killer manipulated people's fear and directed the situations. That was well done without being obvious.

I have a couple of quibbles with the plot. The biggest of which is how could they not notice that (view spoiler)[Wargrave was still alive when they carried him up to his bedroom? They were in close proximity & they didn't notice him breathing?

I thought that the way Blore had been killed (by a heavy marble piece likely from Vera's bedroom) was preposterous, though dramatic for the sake of the story.

Until the end, I was wondering why Christie had spent so much time on Vera's internal monologue. Ah, she did it to show Vera cracking under the pressure, which set up the final death. (hide spoiler)]


Overall, though, this is a classic closed-circle mystery that fans of crimes fiction should read.

My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/4778668543

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Maryann wrote: "I’m a bit confused on the discussion timeline; how long is it open? Thanks in advance."

Actually, the read is set for June 1-June 30, but the threads never close so don't rush. Also, I had intended to break up the book for reading so that people didn't read it and just do the usual "it was a good book" but home issues threw that idea out the window. With my apologies, I meant well.

[Wayne]

Finished, and I awarded it 4 stars. The judge fooled me, I had him down as the mastermind, but then he died just past the halfway mark. After that I was all at sea. Thank goodness somebody found that message in the bottle. ;,>)