Sunday, March 13, 2016

The Penny Reviews #4: "And Then There Were None" (a.k.a: "Ten Little Indians") by Agatha Christie

Did I really say that I'd do one of these every week? What was I thinking?

Oy. I forgot one very key point that nixes that plan: while I wouldn't call myself a "slow" reader... I'm definitely not an incredibly fast one (I like to really absorb everything I read as I read it, so it started as a conscious decision... now I can't seem to help it; go figure).

And with my schedule of two jobs (one of them an upstart business, where a big part of it is reading client authors' work), my not being a fast reader is a big problem for having this thing here as well.

So to amend, there will be a Penny Review once every two weeks, starting now. 

But anyway: on with the show!


Image courtesy of http://mc-hawkins.com/wp-content/uploads/9780061739255_p0_v7_s260x420.jpg


Ten strangers stranded together on an island during a storm. A murderer in their midst. A nursery rhyme counting down their demise, one by one. Who is guilty? Can anyone survive the murderer's plot, or their own spiralling into paranoia, even madness? So goes the classic who-done-it mystery, "And Then There Were None" (a.k.a: "Ten Little Indians") by the renowned Agatha Christie.

Who's the Hero: Interestingly, this little tale doesn't exactly have one since all ten main characters/visitors to the island in the story are reported to be guilty of crimes of their own, which is why they are now being targeted by the killer. By way of their crimes, our "heroes" are everything ranging from a drunk driver and a lying police officer, to a negligent drunkard doctor and an elderly housekeeping couple who killed their employer for the inheritance she would leave them. There are simply some among them who are in a way more innocent or less truly malicious than the others who you want to survive, while you anxiously watch the others be killed off.

What's the Story: When those ten strangers are all invited to an island resort by letters received apparently from past separate acquaintances of each of theirs, they all travel to the island via ferry, unaware yet that they'd been lured there by a killer. But on their first night, a recorded message plays which accuses them all of having committed crimes that they'd gotten away with, and which promises them that they'll pay for those crimes... a promise which is followed by the first among them dying from poison in their drink. To make matters all the worse, they find that bad weather has cut them off from contact with the mainland and left them stranded on the island, and so they begin to be killed off, one after the other, in ways eerily following the lines of the nursery rhyme (about the "Ten Little Indians") hanging on the wall of one of the rooms. As each character reflects privately on the crime of theirs which signed their death warrant, they alternatively range from resignedly awaiting their turn for death to trying desperately to escape the island or at the least to determine the identity of the killer in an effort to save themselves. Inevitably however, as the killer and the book's title make clear, all must pay for their crimes, one way or another.

How's the Aftertaste: This book was, simply and cheesily put, delicious. I'll admit, I'd already read this book years ago, but with how much I remembered enjoying it, I wanted to see how it held up almost a decade later. And boy, does it ever hold up. It's eerie, suspenseful, absolutely enthralling and sometimes downright creepy. It's the mystery genre at its classic best.




So the Verdict Is...









~Absolutely satisfying, creepy brain candy.~



Yeah, anyone who's read this book already saw that one coming. And for those of you who haven't read it yet... why not?? Go to the book store, or library, or whatever, and get cracking - you're missing out!

Until next time then :) cheerio -- and don't forget to leave a comment with any books you'd like to see reviewed in the future!

~\\//~

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