Christie, Agatha - Ten Little Niggers (1939) aka And Then There Were None aka Ten Little Indians (1939)

Review by Nick Fuller

5/5

Undoubtedly one of the classic Christies. The author herself explained in her Autobiography that she

had written the book Ten Little Niggers because it was so difficult to do that the idea had fascinated me. Ten people had to die without it becoming ridiculous or the murderer being obvious. I wrote the book after a tremendous amount of planning, and I was pleased with what I had made of it. It was clear, straightforward, baffling, and yet had a perfectly reasonable explanation; in fact, it had to have an epilogue in order to explain it. It was well received and reviewed, but the person who was really pleased with it was myself, for I knew better than any critic how difficult it had been... I don't say it is the play or book of mine that I like best, or even that I think it is my best, but I do think in some ways that it is a better piece of craftsmanship than anything else I have written.

Although there is no detection proper (naturally enough, since all the characters die), there are many clues to the identity of the lunatic who kills ten unsuspected murderers marooned on Nigger Island, among them a reptilian judge, a Harley Street doctor, a demure young governess, and a spinster with a bad case of religious mania, according to the old nursery rhyme. Iit will be a highly alert reader who manages to solve the puzzle; the rest of us must be content to admire the brilliance of the least likely person gambit, and the skill with which she avoids monotony from setting in, always a danger with this sort of story, as Van Dine demonstrated to his cost. In addition, there is a devastating study of human beings under tension, of regression into savagery, that ranks alongside Anthony Berkeley's Panic Party (1934) and William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

See also: http://at-scene-of-crime.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/death-invites-you.html