And Then There Were None

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE by AGATHA CHRISTIE

With over 100 million copies sold worldwide, Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” {Also known as Ten Little Indians} novel is regarded as the best mystery-thriller novel of all times. Translated into many languages, adapted into several films, everything has been said and written about this masterpiece but here is my version of it anyway.

Ten escapees from the law of the land, who are directly or indirectly responsible for the death of other persons are conned into coming onto an isolated inhibited ‘Soldier Island’ that has a grand mansion as the only sign of human civilization.

Sooner than later: a gramophone announces their sins – or put formally their crimes – and then informs them that they have been brought to the island for the sole purpose of being punished for those crimes.

With no means of escaping the island and with death looping over their heads, the guests race against time to save their lives but then the cycle of gruesome murders begins. One after the other, a guest is killed in a manner paralleling, inevitably and sometimes bizarrely copying the methods of death depicted in the old nursery rhyme, ‘Ten Little Indians’.

Soon the surviving guests realize that the killer is one among them and then the hunt for the diabolical murderer begins.  

The ingenious artificial plot of the story is an unbelievable tall story but it is so incredibly fascinating that it ensnares the reader.

With abundance of murders: twists and turns: surprising outcomes: complex characters: creepy scenarios: baffling events: remorseless pitted against guilt: self preservation pitted against sacrifice: compassion pitted against callousness: bravery pitted against cowardice and the ever elusive sinister mastermind villain with his twisted dark sense of humor, makes this heart pounding novel one of the best work of literature ever produced, which deserves five out of five stars.

One must notice that I have refrained from mentioning as much about the plot or the novel’s story as I have done with other novel reviews because this novel is such a brilliant piece of work from beginning to the end that mentioning anything more may ruin the reader’s experience with this novel.

This is one of those novel that justifies the saying that proof of pudding is in eating – in this case in reading – and believe me the pudding is marvelous.