My first ever, proper, Agatha Christie novel. Before I had only read a couple of her short stories but could not really claim to have read Agatha Christie's works. I knew a bit about her, I knew the names of her most famous characters, the titles of some of her books.
Recently, Agatha Christie's name and works have come up a lot. I re-watched the episode of Doctor Who in which she featured as a character. Quiz shows brought her up as a subject. It was said, time and again, that she is the best selling author of all time. Then there seemed to be masses of adaptations of her work on TV. What was it about this author that seemed to catch people's attention?
As The Storygraph Genre Challenge includes reading a horror or mystery novel by a woman or non binary author, it seemed as good a time as any to delve into Christie's works. One of the reasons I haven't before is because I had no idea where to start and so I researched the matter. And Then There Were None came up as the first suggestion and was on the list of books from the official Agatha Christie Trust. So I chose to start here, with a story that intrigued me, that was a stand alone novel.
It straight away drew me in, simply laying out all the characters and why they were heading to this island. Then it very quickly established that there was much more to the visit than any of them realised, as none of them seem to know the hosts, or where they are, and when a mysterious recording is played accusing every one of the ten people present of murder, it is clear that they may all be in danger.
Then the deaths start. And each one seems to correspond to the rhyme that has been posted up in all of their rooms.
Who is responsible? Why are they all being picked off, one by one? Who is next? Is everyone on the island what they seem to be? Everyone gives a convincing story about the accusations made against them, but are they all telling the truth?
Bits of the puzzle are revealed, gradually. The whole thing is explained, but not quite in the way you'd expect.
It is clever. Extremely clever. In the opening note from Agatha Christie, she explains how the novel was incredibly complicated to write, taking a lot of time, a lot of planning and needed an epilogue in order to explain it. In the end she was immensely proud of it and rightly so.
Did I suspect who it was? I had an inkling, at one time. Though I did not understand how, or why, or when. Even if this is my first proper Agatha Christie, it is not my first mystery. I've watched and read quite a few. Additionally, other writers have an ability to see how plot points work. I demonstrated this recently when watching Death in Paradise, as I figured out who the culprit was very early on, I just didn't know how or why. Sometimes, then a book or show is fast paced it makes it harder to note the details as they happen and figure it out. In this case, I really don't think I would have done, even I'd stopped for half an hour and tried to fit things together. Despite constantly looking back at the rhyme, I could never work out who would die next, when or how.
Considering the book took such a lot of time and work to write, it did not take a lot of time and work to read. I managed it in a day. It is the sort of book that has to be read in one go and can be read in one go. It is not heavy reading, even if it is a little grim in places. It lays things out easily, is fast paced, intriguing. If you're into the mystery it is easy to get on with and hard to put down.
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