And Then There Were None
Mystery
Collin's Crime Club
November 6, 1939
272
THE STORY:
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, teaches us about the consequences of revenge because many people die in this story through the process of vengeance. This story occurs at a small island called the Indian Island, since all characters of this story obtain a letter instructing them to meet at Indian Island. The letter was signed, “Yours truly, Mr. Owen”. When everybody arrives, Mr. Owens is nowhere to be found, so they just go inside the booked mansion to settle down. Halfway through dinner, one of the guests, Rogers, starts playing a disc on the gramophone, saying that it was what Mr. Rogers trained him to do. However, when he turned on the gramophone, a loud voice boomed across the room. The voice talked about all the different crimes that the following guests were charged for. Throughout this story, many of the guests die, but the freakier part was that whenever one was killed, one of the American Indian figures in the cabinet would be smashed. The killer was clever enough to match each of his murders with the lines from the poem “Ten Little Indians”. The killer devised his plan so that all of the people who hurt him emotionally died and so, he got what he wanted: revenge. Plus, investigations and detectives in the future will never find out the reason behind the death of ten people on a stranded island with no killer in sight.
MY OPINION:
My first reaction after I picked this book was how old fashioned the writing was, but after awhile, I got used to it. The story structure was well designed and the overall content was great! This is definitely one of the best mysteries I have ever read, and normally, mystery books are pretty predictable to the point where you know who’s going to die next or who the killer is, but in this book, it is very mysterious, and I was really shocked when I found out who the killer was. The tone and the mood was capricious, and this book is appropriate for all levels, although kids aged under 12 may find some scenes scary, and there will be some swearing ; otherwise, children to adults will love this book, and I would definitely rate this mystery an 8 out of 10 stars because of the not-so-good word choice and the somewhat-boring beginning.
STUDY QUESTIONS AND VOCABULARY:
FIRST SECTION
1. Where does Constance Culmington ask Mr. Justice Wargrave to meet her?
1a. She asks him to meet her at Indian Island (2)
2.Who was unable to reach Indian Island until the next day?
2a. Mr. Owens was unable to reach Indian Island until the next day. (28)
3. What are all 9 guests guilty of?
3a. They are all guilty of murder (42)
4. Who was ordered by Mr. Owens to turn on the gramophone?
4a. Rogers was ordered to turn on the gramophone.( 48)
5. Who died after ingesting potassium cyanide?
5a. Anthony Marston died after ingesting potassium cyanide.( 70)
ruminate (14)
imperceptibly(19)
cheque (11)
cairngorm (38)
verisimilitude (53)
MIDDLE SECTION
6. Which poem does the 2 deaths correspond to?
6a. The two deaths correspond to the poem “10 Little Indians”. (107)
7.Who is investigating the 2 deaths?
7a. Blore, Armstrong, and Lombard are investigating the two deaths. ( 113-115)
8. Who does Vera suspect to be the murderer
8a. Dr. Armstrong is suspected to be the murderer.(15)
9. Who was the 4th person to die?
9a. Rogers was the 4th person who died.(169)
10. When was Rogers killed?
10a. He was killed when he was outside chopping wood, and he didn’t notice the killer.
hypocrisy (100)
spasmodically (117)
admonitory (122)
laconically (171)
perjury (172)
LAST SECTION
11. How did Vera almost die?
11a. She almost choked herself to death with a seaweed. (198)
What’s so important about the Judge’s death
12a. Since he was thought to be the killer, the killer’s scent was thrown off path when the Judge died,
and nobody knew who the killer was. (202)
13. Who was the last person standing? Why?
13a. Vera, because she killed Blore when they were the only two people standing. (240)
14. How did Vera die at the end?
14a. She hanged herself and committed suicide. (245)
15. What happened to the chair that Vera hanged herself with?
15a. It was put away against the wall neatly by somebody else. (258)
tenanted (214)
quietus (222)
lassitude (231)
hitherto (251)
perjury(253)