And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie’s masterpiece, and the best-selling murder mystery book of all time.

Ten strangers, apparently with little in common, are lured to an island mansion off the coast of Devon by a mysterious host.

They sit down for dinner and a record begins to play. The voice of their host accuses each person of hiding a guilty secret. By the end of the night one of them will be dead.

Stranded by a violent storm, they begin to die – one by one. Each of them is guilty. But who is the killer?

I love Agatha Christie. I read her books sparingly, because despite there being so many, I can’t quite bear the thought of having gone through them all - so opening a new one is always a treat.

I know that this is one of her best. I know of the history, the original (awkward) title and the challenge that she presented to herself with this tale. So, like ‘Murder on the Orient Express’, I wasn’t surprised to zip through this in one sitting.

The fun here is that I was sent the book by the publisher… but with the last chapter missing. Which, if you are familiar, is the conclusion that reveals exactly what’s been going on. Without that epilogue: everybody’s dead. The killer isn’t found. Police are baffled. Author wins!

The week before publication of this special edition (in which that final chapter is tucked into the rear of the volume in a sealed envelope!), I finally got an email with a link to read the final piece of the puzzle for myself. But first, I had to participate in a poll to see if I guessed the killer correctly.

Reader, I did not. But I absolutely adored all these games, making me part of the mystery itself! To coin a very modern term, this seemed a beautifully ‘meta’ approach to a classic novel, and I do hope Ms Christie would approve (and perhaps laugh at our expense).

This mystery deserves its praise. It is so very clever, but without overstaying its welcome or over-confidently showing its hand. There’s no hints; if anything, I did get the impression that the author was going out of her way to wrong-foot the reader by omitting key details that would’ve pointed us in the right direction.

I was worried that I’d get the characters confused, as they’re all introduced in quick succession and aren’t terribly relatable - in that they reminded me of any group of teenagers in a modern horror movie, who are just there to be picked off! In fact, I soon saw the tendrils of this tale reaching down the years to genre-spanning modern movies, from ‘Glass Onion’ to ‘Saw’ (say what you like, it’s a perfect modern whodunnit that owes a lot to books like this).

The Ten all have clear motivations and histories, some more likeable than others, which meant that every chapter (and every ‘soldier’ taken off the board) meant that my theories could change from moment to moment.

My only quibble was the occasional internal monologue, one of which seemed to go against the final reveal. But the journey was so much fun, it wasn’t really a problem.

Yes, it’s a recommend. If you enjoy a good game of ‘Cluedo’, you have this book to thank - and this publisher for reissuing it in such a way that we can enjoy taking part without any of the potential for an unpleasant demise!