And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

I just finished reading this book in my free reading time so I figured I would write up a little book report-thing on it! Enjoy! 

*************************SPOILER ALERT*************************

Mass homicide committed on an island encircled by obscurity leaves characters on their toes to the point where they start killing each other in their strive for self-preservation. General Macarthur was correct when he said that “This is the end....” This was not only true for himself but true for all of the guests other than the murderer of course. This is repeated at the end of the book by Philip Lombard, “This is the end, you understand. We’ve come to the truth now. And it’s the end.” I believe that this is the quote of the whole book because it is truly the end for the inhabitants of the island.

Throughout the story I did not believe that the murderer was one of themselves and that there had to be another person hidden on the island. If they were right, and they were, I had decided it must be Armstrong. This hypothesis was partially correct because Armstrong worked as a partner in crime with Wargrave, although, Wargrave was the master murderer behind the whole plot. Armstrong helped by pronouncing Wargrave’s death when he really was not dead.

At the end when we were told that Wargrave was the murderer behind everything, I was completely surprised because he was the one who took charge in trying to discover who the murderer was and who suggested it was one of the people amongst them. I think he was trying to make this a mental challenge for himself because had he not put his ideas on the table the others wouldn’t had suspected someone among themselves until much later. Also I believe his job would’ve been so easy that is would’ve been boring and he wouldn’t of fulfilled his lust of causing death.

Armstrong, as I stated above, was the murderer in my mind, because he was the doctor of the lot. He administered drugs to the others, he brought an obscure item, the hypodermic syringe, and he was always one of the “mini-courts” possible suspects. Although many people were mentioned during the “mini-courts” only Armstrong was continuously brought up as a possible suspect for each death. This hypothesis disappeared when Armstrong was murdered, but brought back when Wargrave explained that Armstrong became his partner in crime. Apart from Armstrong I had no idea who possibly could be the murderer.

At the start of the book, like most books starts out very slow, with the introduction of characters. This made me think that I had chosen a bad free reading book and that I wouldn’t like it much. This thought did not last because as soon as the rising action started the suspense kept me up at night. I could not wait another day to find out who the murderer really was, I had to find out that night otherwise I knew I wouldn’t be focused the next day at school, because I would be thinking about who I thought the murderer really was. As you can tell, I very much enjoyed And Then There Were None.

Word Count: 532