And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None, was written by Agatha Christie on November 6th, 1939. Christie is the best selling novelist of all time, and the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by Shakespeare and the Bible. This book is considered mystery, as are a large majority of her books. In most of her novels, she takes an unrealistic event and puts "real" people in it. She has a way of captivating her readers with mysteries that keep you guessing until the very end. In total, she wrote 92 books and 17 plays.

And Then There Were None, is about a group of 10 strangers who are invited to stay the weekend at Soldier Island. An island of the coast of Devon, with a large mansion on the premise. They all arrive at the island, unaware of who their gracious host is. The story follows the poem the Ten Little Indians, and as each person starts mysteriously dying it follows the verses in the poem. The entire novel you are kept engaged and speculating who the murder of the whole scheme is...

Three of the major themes in the novel are as follows:

1. Administration of Justice - "Order of death upon the island had been subjected by me to special thought and care. There were, I considered, amongst my guests, varying degrees of guilt. Those who guilt was the lightest should, I decided, pass out first, and not suffer the prolonged mental strain and fear that the more cold-blooded offenders were to suffer" (Christie 162).

2. The Effects of Guilt on One's Conscience - "Would the consciousness of her own guilt, the state of nervous tension consequent on having just shot a man, be sufficient, together with the hypnotic suggestion of the surroundings, to cause her to take her own life?" (Christie 187).

3. Isolation - "I beg your pardon sir, but there's no boat on the island" (Christie 119-120).

Here is an interesting article explaining and discussing the book:

And Then There Were None - Criminal Element