I've wanted to read 'And Then There Were None' by Agatha Christie since I was a child. Seriously. It was actually the name of the final level of an old NES game I had back in the day called 'Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode.' A Duke Togo game with spies, assassinations, and exploration. Was a lot of fun, though I'm not sure it aged well. I learned at the time that this chapter name was based on the title of the movie and later learned that the movie was based on a book of the same name. The original name of the book is abhorrent and I don't believe I would have read it had I known at the time what it was initially called. I won't repeat it here.
I got my copy from eBay again for next to nothing. eBay is fantastic for picking up used or new books.
This book is a murder mystery. Ten people are invited to a mansion on a private island and get stranded there. The occupants begin to die one-by-one. They ultimately realize there is no one else but the initial ten occupants on the island and that, therefore, the murderer must be one of the remaining survivors. They continuously attempt to eliminate suspects that can't possibly have done the preceding murders, based on where they were at the time the murder was believed to have occurred, but are unable to do consistent eliminations. There's differences in probability from one of the occupants to another, but no solid proof and one is left with conjecture and suspicion to attempt to unravel the mystery using the facts presented.
The murders are initially described in a children's nursery rhyme that is framed on the walls throughout the mansion. The current title of the book is actually the last line of this nursery rhyme. I found myself continually referring back to the text of the nursery rhyme to try to anticipate who was getting murdered next and how. I had a really low success rate at that, but it was exceptionally fun to do.
I've never really read a mystery book before outside of Sherlock Holmes books, so I don't have much experience in the genre. Either through stupid luck or astuteness (and I suspect the former), I am proud to say I was correct in who the murderer was for the bulk of the novel. I didn't have certainty until the very end, though, and 'And Then There Were None' does a fantastic job of perpetuating uncertainty.
There's a lot to keep track of in this tale. Lots of characters and lots of events and facts. It was a joy to read, though, and I'm glad I finally got to it. It may be awhile before I read another mystery book if only because it isn't one of the genres I frequent, obviously, but I'll have fond memories of this book likely for the rest of my life.
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