Book Reviewed by Brittany Burchett

In an earlier review, I wrote that some people like to be scared during the long, dark winter months. That’s why, this month, I’m reviewing the besting selling mystery ever – Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.

The plot has a simple formula that has often been copied (the Clue franchise has been a particularly successful example of this). Ten people, who know nothing about each other, are invited to an isolated house on Soldier Island by a mysterious host. On the island, they find they are completely cut off – too much rain keeps the boat from coming, there are no phones, there’s no one else there only themselves. They soon discover that their mysterious host is not there and even more strangely, that they have not all been invited by the same person.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Earlier in the day, one of the guests, Vera Claythorne, noticed a poem on the wall about ten little soldiers. It’s written as a nursery rhyme, but each verse describes how one little soldier dies, ending with a count: “and then there were nine…and then there were eight…” going all the way until “and then there were none.” Surely just a quaint decoration for a room on Soldier Island?  That is, until later that evening. The group has gathered to have drinks and see if their host will appear when a gramophone begins to play. It accuses each getting away with a murder at some point in their lives, specifying names and dates of the victims. And in the wake of the gramophone’s revelations, as the group begins to panic, the first guest chokes on a poisoned drink. He has met the same death as the first little soldier in the poem. And from there the guests have embarked down a terrifying path. They’re desperate to catch the killer before the ending he has chosen for each of them comes true.

A piece of advice for reading this book – have bookmarked the poem, Ten Little Soldier Boys, and each character’s first scene. After all, dealing with ten characters, you need some help telling them apart. Christie does not coddle you in this regard. It’s a two hundred twenty-five page manuscript that she packs with action and suspense. She doesn’t take time to help you keep up.  As for keeping the poem beside you, it’s a loose predictor of what terrible death will befall someone next. The killer is telling you all the things he’ll do and in what order. The anticipation becomes part of the fun, especially as we try to answer the questions, “Who dies next?”  and “Who will be the last one left?”

With so many characters, and all trapped like turkeys at a holiday shoot-out, there’s no character development here, no one we can identify with. We’re supposed to accept them all as murderers.  But still, this book kept me up very late. With her masterful use of the unnerving, a vague sense of danger and a few facts that don’t line up, Christie creates a situation that simultaneously scares you and sucks you in. The book goes by quickly – our heads are turned just like the characters- and that’s good, because a book this riveting would be an exercise in frustration were it any longer or any slower. Christie knows the skill which so many authors lack, of ending when your story is complete, and not dragging it out for personal satisfaction.

If you were to analyze, you could find parts of this problematic. Midway through the novel some of the characters discuss the murderer’s aim: he appears to be pursuing these ten people for murders that could not be or were not punished by law. And some of the ten victim/accused are simply murderers who escaped punishment. But not all of them are guilty of murder. Some of them are guilty of negligence, ill intent, carelessness, and callous disregard for other. Sometimes, their actions led to the deaths of others. But that isn’t quite the same as murder, and shouldn’t earn them a terror-filled execution. And when I considered the book from that judicious angle, the fun of it began to wane.

As an English major, maybe I was just trained to analyze too much. After all, it is a fun mystery.  So wrap up in a blanket, and experience why And Then There Were None is the best-selling mystery, ever. You’ll have an enjoyable night.

Brittany Burchett is a freelance writer for Boom! She graduated in 2010 with a degree in English from NC State University and has two complete, unpublished novels. If you would like to recommend something for her to review, offer an opinion on a review, ask a question about her novels, or just say hello, her e-mail address is britt.burchett10@gmmail.com.