Then There Were None

Hi, this is Hamako.
I'd like to write a book report.


Then There Were None (also published as Ten Little Indians)
/by Agatha Christie / 70,000words / YL10 ★★★★★!!!

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There was a little island and it stood about a mile from the coast.
Nobody can land on the island when there was a southeasterly.
Its name was “Indian Island.”

Rumor had it that there was a luxurious modern house and it was built by a millionaire.

Ten people was invited to the house by U.N. Owen, the owner of the island.
Everyone has different age, sex and reason for the invitation.
(Two of them, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, were newly employed to handy about the house (a butler) and good cook.)

There were a rhyme was framed and hung up over the mantelpiece in the every guest rooms.
It was, the old nursery rhyme, “the ten little Indian boys.”
Also there were ten little Indian china figures on the table at the dining room.

When all guests arrived at the house, the butler said
“Mr. Owen unable to get here till tomorrow. And dinner would be at 8 o’clock.”

The food had been good, the wine perfect. Rogers waited well.
Everyone was satisfied with themselves and with life.
There was a silence─a comfortable replete silence.

Into that silence came The Voice. Without warning, inhuman, penetrating.
“Ladies and gentlemen! Silence, please! You are charged with the following indictments.”
The content of the story was unearthed each guests’ past crimes.
Everyone had done the deliberate murder and it was quite impossible to prove,
and all quite untouchable by the law.

Amid the confusion the first victim was murdered by poisoning.
He picked up his drink and drank it off at a gulp
Suddenly he choked badly and took his breath,

Next morning, the second victim was found in her bed. She died in her sleep.

And after both of the murders, one at a time, the little Indian china figures were broken.
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Do you know about “the ten little Indian boys.”?
The beginning of the rhyme is…
Ten little Indian boys went out to dine;
One choked his little self and then there were nine.

Nine little Indian boys sat up very late;
One overslept himself and then there were eight.

And go away down…

One little Indian boy left all alone;
He went and hanged himself and then there were
none.

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The whole story really made me scared!
First of all, the title. “And then There were None.”
What an awful!
And the mysterious old man who met one of the guests on the train, (to Indian Island.)
he said, “There’s a squall ahead. I can smell it,” and
“Watch and pray. The day of judgment is very close at hand.” (He isn’t the murderer.)
Ooh, oh! I had an uneasy feeling that something terrible is going to happen.
From the beginning of the story, the guests regretted for their past crimes.
After they’d heard of The Voice and the first murder had done,
they got more and more riddled with guilt and reached the end of own rope by the unknown murderer.
They couldn’t get out of the island because of the weather had always been wretched.
Hum… wretched?
It seems to be impossible that any one could have left or come to the island.
Then, Mr. Owen (the murderer) is “one of the guests…?”
(It was for me one of “us?” at that time. How fearful!)
I screamed for help and kept saying in my heart as the plot develops more and more,
get murdered and crushed down the china figure one by one with following the rhyme,
“ Who, who is the murderer? Is anyone else in the hiding place? Who is Mr. U.N. Owen? Where is he? Or she?
U.N. Owen is one of us? Oh, I’m very scared. Somebody help me! Please somebody get me out of here!”
At the end of the story on the island that gave me creepy and dreadful feelings, and puzzles.
There’re no clues on the criminal at this stage.

After the affair, Assistant Commissioner and Inspector at Scotland Yard tried solution of the mystery, but they couldn’t. They got what happened on the island and the motive for the murders, but couldn’t find out
“How” and “Who” killed them.
Because when Yard arrived, “There Were None.” on the island.

At the very end of the story I’ve got about the murderer
and saw the detail of the case from the murder’s point of view.

I’ve finished reading the book, and how should I say….
What a marvelous author she is…. That’s all I can say.