And Then There Were None. And Then There Were None is a mystery novel by English writer Agatha Christie, described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, as Ten Little Niggers, after the minstrel song, which serves as a major plot point. Agatha Christie - And Then There Were None (USA).iso. CRC, D467DA4BMore. MD5, 7D97E8BF8E2C497C29F236A244EAC5A4.
Eight people, all strangers toeach other, are invited to Indian Island, off the Englishcoast. Vera Claythorne, a former governess, thinks she has beenhired as a secretary; Philip Lombard, an adventurer, and William Blore,an ex-detective, think they have been hired to look out for troubleover the weekend; Dr. Armstrong thinks he has been hired to lookafter the wife of the island’s owner. Emily Brent, General Macarthur,Tony Marston, and Judge Wargrave think they are going to visit oldfriends.
When they arrive on the island, the guests are greetedby Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, the butler and housekeeper, who report thatthe host, someone they call Mr. Owen, will not arrive until thenext day. That evening, as all the guests gather in the drawingroom after an excellent dinner, they hear a recorded voice accusingeach of them of a specific murder committed in the past and neveruncovered. They compare notes and realize that none of them, includingthe servants, knows “Mr. Owen,” which suggests that they were broughthere according to someone’s strange plan.
As they discuss what to do, Tony Marston chokes on poisoned whiskeyand dies. Frightened, the party retreats to bed, where almost everyoneis plagued by guilt and memories of their crimes. Wallflowers - glad all over. Vera Claythornenotices the similarity between the death of Marston and the firstverse of a nursery rhyme, “Ten Little Indians,” that hangs in eachbedroom.
The next morning the guests find that Mrs. Rogers apparently diedin her sleep. The guests hope to leave that morning, but the boat thatregularly delivers supplies to the island does not show up. Blore,Lombard, and Armstrong decide that the deaths must have been murdersand determine to scour the island in search of the mysterious Mr.Owen. They find no one, however. Meanwhile, the oldest guest, GeneralMacarthur, feels sure he is going to die and goes to look out atthe ocean. Before lunch, Dr. Armstrong finds the general dead ofa blow to the head.
The remaining guests meet to discuss their situation.They decide that one of them must be the killer. Many make vagueaccusations, but Judge Wargrave reminds them that the existing evidencesuggests any of them could be the killer. Afternoon and dinner passrestlessly, and everyone goes to bed, locking his or her door before doingso. The next morning, they find that Rogers has been killed whilechopping wood in preparation for breakfast. At this point, the guestsfeel sure the murders are being carried out according to the dictatesof the nursery rhyme. Also, they realize that the dining-room tableinitially featured ten Indian figures, but with each death one ofthe figures disappears.
After breakfast, Emily Brent feels slightly giddy, andshe remains alone at the table for a while. She is soon found dead,her neck having been injected with poison. At this point, Wargraveinitiates an organized search of everyone’s belongings, and anythingthat could be used as a weapon is locked away. The remaining guestssit together, passing time and casting suspicious looks at eachother. Finally, Vera goes to take a bath, but she is startled bya piece of seaweed hanging from her ceiling and cries out. Blore,Lombard, and Armstrong run to help her, only to return downstairsto find Wargrave draped in a curtain that resembles courtroom robesand bearing a red mark on his forehead. Armstrong examines the bodyand reports that Wargrave has been shot in the head.
That night, Blore hears footsteps in the hall; upon checking,he finds that Armstrong is not in his room. Blore and Lombard search forArmstrong, but they cannot find him anywhere in the house or onthe island. When they return from searching, they discover anotherIndian figure missing from the table.
Vera, Lombard, and Blore go outside, resolving to stayin the safety of the open land. Blore decides to go back into thehouse to get food. The other two hear a crash, and they find someonehas pushed a statue out of a second-story window, killing Bloreas he approached the house. Vera and Lombard retreat to the shore, wherethey find Armstrong’s drowned body on the beach. Convinced thatLombard is the killer, Vera steals Lombard’s gun and shoots him.She returns to her bedroom to rest, happy to have survived. Butupon finding a noose waiting for her in her room, she feels a strangecompulsion to enact the last line of the nursery rhyme, and hangsherself.
The mystery baffles the police until a manuscript ina bottle is found. The late Judge Wargrave wrote the manuscriptexplaining that he planned the murders because he wanted to punishthose whose crimes are not punishable under law. Wargrave frankly admitsto his own lust for blood and pleasure in seeing the guilty punished.When a doctor told Wargrave he was dying, he decided to die in ablaze, instead of letting his life trickle away. He discusses howhe chose his victims and how he did away with Marston, Mr. and Mrs.Rogers, Macarthur, and Emily Brent. Wargrave then describes howhe tricked Dr. Armstrong into helping him fake his own death, promisingto meet the doctor by the cliffs to discuss a plan. When Armstrongarrived, Wargrave pushed him over the edge into the sea, then returnedto the house and pretended to be dead. His ruse enabledhim to dispose of the rest of the guests without drawing their suspicion.Once Vera hanged herself on a noose that he prepared for her, Wargraveplanned to shoot himself in such a way that his body would fallonto the bed as if it had been laid there. Thus, he hoped, the policewould find ten dead bodies on an empty island.