I find it difficult to review books as well-crafted as this without it turning into a mere description of the first 10 pages of plot. But here’s the description anyways:
10 people are invited to an isolated island off the coast of England. Great mystery surrounds the only house on the island; it was recently bought by someone, but none of the guests know who….and to top it of they were all invited by different people for different reasons.
They are sailed out to the island and on the first night after dinner a gramophone starts playing accusing each of the guests of terrible murders in their pasts. Shortly thereafter the first guest is killed and the mystery is on. One by one they meet their demise according to the poem of 10 little soldiers. (Originally 10 little indians and before that 10 little niggers. I think we can all se why modifications have been made to the original)
That’s it, that’s the premise of the book and it is damn well executed. I don’t think anyone ever reads this book and solves it. Christie shifts the narrative between the characters making them all seem guilty; which of course they are in some way. While there are definitely some characters you are sure are innocent, Christie manages to make you doubt every single one to the last page. It is not a traditional mystery in that it is impossible to solve it, there are no clues along the way and the murder is only solved in the postscript.
If I had to talk deeper upon the themes of the book we could discuss the concept of justice in punishing those who would not otherwise be punished for their crimes. The killer has taken it upon themselves to dole out punishment for the guilty, but only because they believe in their hearts that they are a wicked person. In that sense it plays into themes such as Dexter also covered; can you be a good person while lusting for horrible deeds?
We could discuss the concept of guilt; an emotion that varies greatly among the people on the island. Some go mad with guilt, some completely dismiss their crimes as inconsequential and some are steadfast in their belief that their actions were the right ones. There is no correlation between the feelings of guilt and the order of the killings.
But really it is just a marvelously entertaining, well-crafted who-dunnit. One that everyone should read.
Ditto.
Mystery is not my genre but this was a book club selection and I could NOT put it down. It was riveting and so well written. Agatha is a master of her game and while I’ve only read a handful of her books, this is clearly a must.