Submitted by Alice
The book, And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christi is a murder mystery about ten people who are sent to a place called Soldier Island. None of the guests know each other, or why they were summoned there. On this island there is only one huge eerie mansion in which the guests are supposed to stay in. Inside, there are two things that catch everyone’s eye. The first object is a framed poem titled, Ten Little Soldier Boys. The piece explains how at the beginning of a mission there were ten soldiers. While on their journey, one after the other dies from a specific cause until there were eventually none left. The second things the guests quickly notice are ten clay soldier figures on a table.
Coincidentally, every night a person in the house is murdered. One by one, the people in the mansion die of the same causes as the soldiers in the poem, and every time someone perishes, one of the clay soldiers mysteriously disappears. The survivors constantly search for an escape, but somehow all sources of communication have been cut off. One by one, the people go mad, and one after the other gets killed until everyone is dead.
The ten main characters in this story are Vera, Justice, Armstrong, Philip, Blore, Emily, Anthony, MacArthur, and the two servants, Thomas and Ethel. At the beginning of the book all of the characters are excited to be on a supposed “vacation.” As people start to mysteriously die day by day, the guests become terrified, paranoid, and suspicious of each other. Some even go mad, and give up on trying to protect themselves. Overall, the feelings of the characters towards the end of the book are chaotic and maddening.
And Then There Were None is written in first person, and also has many unexpected twists and turns. This makes the tone of the book dark, mysterious, and horrific.
I love reading And Then There Were None by Agatha Christi because it is full of cliffhangers and clever plots, which never fail to entice me to read even more. It’s always the little things that make a book great.
Alice is in grade 7 and has volunteered her time as a library monitor.