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Summary: Good Old School Suspense
Review: 395 Reviews (as of March 9, 2003)! I must admit to being impressed. "And Then There Were None" is a solid whodunit from the old school. We have all experienced the storyline before, most likely because others have "borrowed" it from Author Christie. The proverbial "mysterious stranger" invites ten individuals to an island. Each has a definite skeleton is his or her personal closet. One by one they die. The plot thickens as the group realizes that the murderer is one of them! This reviewer won't reveal the ending -as some fellow amazoners have!- but I believe it is plausible. The resolution certainly completes the circle. ATTWN has the added value of being highly readable. No doubt many have consumed it in one sitting, pulled along by the momentum. There are two soft points to ATTWN. 1) The reader must accept the initial premise that the ten accepted a mysterious invitation from a complete stranger and 2)its' brevity precludes the development of any of the characters. A few of these were "characters" in their own right! Another 30-50 pages would only have bolstered the suspense. Those who like mystery/crime/ murder novels should not be disappointed. With 80 novels and 14 plays to her credit, Ms. Christie is a low risk author, especially at paperback prices. A final word of warning: Do not be fooled, as this reviewer was, by the classic 1945 movie version with Barry Fitzgerald and Walter Huston. Though equally satisfying, the endings are NOT the same.
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Summary: The Greatest Book
Review: This book was very clever and has a great ending. Once I started reading this I seriously couldn't put it put back down.
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Summary: An All-Time Crime Classic
Review: This classic Christie whodunit has borne three different titles, which has been the source of some confusion. Originally published in England under the title "Ten Little Niggers" in 1939, it was retitled "And Then There Were None" for its 1940 American edition for obvious reasons. However, the English stage version of 1943 retained the "Niggers" title while the American stage version ran as "Ten Little Indians." Even more confusingly, the first film version, released in 1945, bore the American "And Then There Were None" title, while the three subsequent adaptations (1965, 1975, and 1989) took the "Ten Little Indians" title! The original offensive title comes from a Victorian-era music-hall song, which itself was a rip-off of an American song by Septimus Winner, circa 1868. All of which is neither here nor there, but only to help clear up any confusion. I would note that the most recent French edition bears the title "Dix petit negres", which somehow does not surprise me... As for the actual novel, it's perhaps the ultimate whodunit of the "locked house" variety. Ten people are summoned to an island off the Devon coast, none of them know each other or their ostensible host. The story starts by showing the ten en route to the island and provides a brief character sketch of each as background. I have to confess that at first, some of the men kind of blend together, and it takes little time to keep straight who is who. Once on the island, the eight guests and two servants wait for their host, who never shows up. Completely cut off from the mainland, they grow restless until one of them dies. When another dies, it can be no mere coincidence, and they realize that one amongst them must be a killer. The rest of the book plays this cat and mouse game all the way out, leaving the reader guessing until the very end. Because of the number of characters, there's not a whole lot of depth to any of them, but the story is obviously plot-driven as opposed to character-driven, so that should come as no surprise. It's an incredibly elaborate (and thus slightly contrived) web that is woven, but great fun, especially in bleak, stormy weather!
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Summary: simply the best
Review: simply the best agatha christie novel i've read so far (and i've read them all...)!
highly recommended to fans of other mystery writers.
by the way, can anybody tell me if i can find the movie (with john gielgud?) on vhs or dvd?
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Summary: help!
Review: can anybody tell me whether there there is a tv or movie adaptation available on vhs or dvd?
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Summary: The answer lies in the rhyme...
Review: Probably one of the most exciting Christie books. You'll get a bit confused at the beginning with so many characters introduced but everything will slot into place. I didn't guess at all, but the clue is in the poem itself!!
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Summary: Cristie does it again....
Review: this is a must read! And Then There Were None is a truly excellent book and I strongly suggest you read it. The ending is quite a twist and the thrilling but playful storyline is one of a kind. Don't be discouraged by the many characters, or you'll miss out on a great book!
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Summary: The Chronicler of Demise
Review: Agatha Christie is the unwitting and morbidly fascinating chronicler of her own demise - the gradual fading of her milieu, her period, its mores and values, beliefs and superstitions, dreams and aspirations. The mirror of pre-Hitler Europe crack'd and then there were none. She was there, an indefatigable and uncannily observant documentarist of a dying era. sam Vaknin, author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited.
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Summary: The mother of all serial killers novels
Review: This is definitively the maximus of maximus in thriller detective novels. It was not the first Agatha Christie novel I have ever read, but this goes over the limits. Actually I thought the english title was "Ten little niggers" as it was published in 1923, but somehow the name changed throughout the decades. The story is developed in the most accurate way, with Agatha's known class and style. Actually, after having read some of Agatha's novels, I had gotten the ability to guess the finals, but this one I coulnd't do. Amazing! Definitively a book that a thriller lover MUST NOT MISS... EVER.
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Summary: Still entertaining, even after several reads.
Review: And Then There Were None tells the story of ten people, all with different backgrounds, and who don't know each other, who are invited by a certain U. N. Owen to spend some time on Nigger Island, off the shore of Devonshire. When they disembark they learn that their host has't arrived yet. They're all speculating as to who this mysterious man or woman can be when a record starts playing on the gramophone, accusing each guest of murder. Not long after, one of them dies, poisoned. The next morning, it's another one's turn. One by one they die, according to the verses of the nursery rhyme Ten Little Niggers, and one by one the ten little negroid statuettes displayed in the dining room disappear. After a thourough but infructuous search of the island, they're forced to face the music: the murderer must be one of them. It was the third time I read this book, albeit the first in its original language. And even though I was bound to find it a little less suspenseful, it was nice to see the tension build up as the guests all start to suspect each other, and it was much entertaining. Lady Agatha Christie sure knew how to write them detective stories!
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