And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Published: 1939
Narrated by: Dan Stevens
Length: 06:01 (264 pages)
Despite loving detective fiction, I only read my first Agatha Christie novel earlier this year – Murder on the Orient Express, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I remember discussing, but not reading, And Then There Were None in a detective fiction course I took at university, so I thought it would be a great next step. We did watch the 1945 film adaptation in class, which was entertaining, but I can’t really remember too much from it. I think it played out slightly differently from the book. I just recently saw that the BBC did a miniseries of this in 2015 with Charles Dance and Sam Neill on the cast, so I’ll have to track that down.
A group of strangers are invited to a house on a remote island. They all received individualized invitations giving different reasons for the visit – job offers and meetings with old friends and acquaintances, for example. Many of these reasons would not have gotten me on the island. Lee-Ann basically has to lead me out at gunpoint to go to a party full of people I know and like ten minutes away, so as far as I was concerned, every lunatic willing to go to the island was capable of murder. Once in the house, they realized they’d all been brought to the island under false pretenses and the host was nowhere to be seen. As they waited for him to arrive, a murder occurred, and the murderer was one of the guests.
I really enjoyed this. The premise is fun, and I found myself unsure of who the murderer was right until the end, changing my guess every chapter or two. I love Agatha Christie’s characters, perfectly narrated in this by Dan Stevens, and learning more about their backstories as the plot drove on was fascinating. The revealing of each character’s story was perfectly paced with the action in the house. I was eager to read on throughout the entire novel.
As a side note, we were watching Jeopardy the other night (now on Netflix!), and a board clue that came up was something like “The original title of Agatha Christie’s famous novel And Then There Were None“, and I was like “Alex noooooo”. The answer (or question, I suppose) turned out to be Ten Little Indians, which was the much less racist (though still dodgy) second title. Maybe this was the first title it was published with in America? Either way. it seemed like an odd question to throw out there. Very South Park.
18 Comments
theorangutanlibrarian
I really enjoyed this and thought the premise was fun too! Great review!
Rob
Thanks!
Bookstooge
I think the bbc version was well done. Of course, once you know the story, a bit of the tenseness is gone…
Rob
I could definitely see that being the case, yeah. Probably worth checking out though.
Joelendil
I can imagine that Jeopardy clue being written by a disgruntled employee…complete with plausible deniability (“What? My sources say ‘Ten Little Indians’”).
Rob
Hah, yup. Let’s just throw this in there and see what happens…
Ruthiella
The Jeopardy Answer was probably limited to the U.S. original title. That is the title I read it under in the late 1970s.
I listened to Dan Stevens narrate The Angles Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and I concur, he is an excellent audio book artist!
Rob
Yeah, I think that is likely the case. No one answered, and I wonder if they were a bit unsure, hah.
He’s excellent! I think the only other book I’ve listened to his narration on was Frankenstein, which was also great.
Red Metal
I have to admit I’ve never read an Agatha Christie novel, though even I know just how innovative she was. They were the kinds of plot twists nobody could’ve seen coming at the time. Then again, if what I’ve heard is true, I get the feeling they could catch modern readers off-guard.
Rob
Yeah. I imagine reading them at the time must have been quite exciting. The two I’ve read have held up quite well, disregarding some questionable stereotyping, although I’m sure the plots still have less of an impact on me since I’ve experienced so many stories that were inspired by her writing.
Andrew G Lockhart
Good and interesting review and very interesting comments. I thought everyone knew the original title WASN’T ‘Ten Little Indians.’ I suspect the original word isn’t used anywhere today, but it was not unusual to hear it, and see it in print a quarter of a century ago. The origin of the original British title was probably a nineteenth century story for children.
Rob
Yes, I read it was a nursery rhythm. Certainly different times.
nikki @bookpunks
My mom is a huge Agatha Christie fan and yet I haven’t read any of her books either. Have been thinking more and more lately that I should give them a try, so this is a timely reminder to get on that, cool.
Rob
I’m enjoying them so far! I’ve actually only listened to them, haven’t read a physical book yet. They seem perfectly suited for audio.
Inge | The Belgian Reviewer
Great review! I didn’t read this book but saw the mini-series on tv earlier this year and really liked it as well. I had no idea it had another title first!
Rob
Thank you! Glad to hear you enjoyed the mini-series. I’ll be checking that out soon, I think.
Silvia
Lol, I have just finished a different Christie, The Murder of Roger Achroyd, and I remember having watched the movie with David Suchet, and I love both. She’s the perfect light bit well done books.
Rob
Glad to hear it! Looking forward to reading another Poirot novel. He seems like a fun character.