![]() ![]() The foreboding atmosphere is nearly all due to the dire situation the characters find themselves in and to their dark thoughts. Not much description, given the strange locale. ![]() Pointed dialogue that all sounds the same regardless of who's speaking. Characters more like caricatures, revealed in brief internal monologues. This is a surprisingly compact piece of writing to contain so many murders and plot twists. One can almost hear the horror movie crescendos.īut why not? It helps keep the word count down to nearly novella lengths. More of a writing tic really, as she overuses those dot-dot-dots. until.Īnd that's one of Christie's favourite and most annoying writing tricks: the use of ellipses (.) to build anticipation and suggest inexpressible terrors to come. suspecting and turning on each other as their numbers drop off. at the mercy of an unknown killer avenging their sins. the mystery ratcheting up as they realize they are stranded. Starting with the quick profiles of the actors in this drama as they each ponder their mysterious invitation to the house on an island, everyone obviously hiding a great secret in their pasts. It's still effective today after we've had generations of thrillers and slashers in which all the characters are knocked off one at a time.īut this is not to denigrate the appeal also of the writer's ability to squeeze the most suspense possible out of the plot. Fortunately, she's got the knack of writing to speed you obliviously past such issues.Ī large part of the appeal has got to be the plot, which was startlingly novel at the time. It's also one of the Christie books that you have to read quickly, to keep from overthinking the unbelievable characters and situations. Ten little problems with world's most popular mysteryĭespite issues with its objectionable titling over the years, And Then There were None has been not only the most popular novel by Agatha Christie during her long, prolific career, but one of the best-selling books of all time-ranked only a few spots behind the Bible. ![]()
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