By Will Traband

Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is a true mystery. Many of Christie’s earlier works are considered mysteries, but many are not. They are more akin to jigsaw puzzles, where the player knows what the end product is supposed to be. A real mystery has no obvious path forward. And Then There Were None creates a real mystery by directly attacking this formula. It sets up characters like any of Christie’s works but pulls the rug out from under the reader. Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is a successful mystery story because it subverts the reader’s expectations in a way that forces them to consider all outcomes. 

Many of Agatha Christie’s texts work around a set of tropes. For example, in the Poirot books, there is a formula. Poirot arrives in some new setting, and a murder occurs. Poirot decides to investigate, but almost everyone is suspicious in one way or another. After a while, and with a few twists and turns, there is always a section where Hercule Poirot gathers all the suspects in a room and gives a long speech about all the clues as to who the murderer is. He ends with his announcement of the murderer’s identity, and they get taken away. These tropes are not limited to story beats, however. There was often a mysterious wealthy person who needed care for an illness and a kind caretaker who helped them. Formulas like these were ubiquitous in mystery texts but posed a problem. When a mystery becomes formulaic, it ceases to be a mystery. The clues are often the same and in the same places. There is no mystery how the story will unfold when it has occurred a thousand times before.

Christie understands the tropes that she created and uses them to her advantage. One brilliant example is Dr. Armstrong. A mysterious, wealthy person who needs care due to an illness is a recurring character in Christie’s work. Dr. Armstrong is the kind caretaker, as mentioned earlier. This setup feels familiar to long-time readers of her novels and gets them off their guard. The general setting of the book is also recognizable. A large number of suspects gathered in one place, and a murder happens. Now, the detective has to find the guilty party despite everyone involved being suspicious in one way or another. And Then There Were None first shakes up the formula with the shifting perspectives of the first chapter. No detective will solve the case, as everyone is that detective at one time or another. With the death of Mrs. Rogers, it becomes even more clear that this book is unique. Two murders, while not unheard of, are rare in Christie’s works. When General MacArthur dies, it only gets worse. Three deaths are even less common, and suddenly, there is a sense of panic.

The paranoia instilled in both the characters and the reader is palpable. It is unclear who will die next; the only clue is that it will follow the Ten Little Indians poem. It is so different from most of Christie’s works that while there is a mystery, there is also an element of horror. There is supposed to be a hero in this kind of text. There is supposed to be some detective who will save the day. As the death count mounts, the most significant subversion in this text becomes clear: there is no hero on Indian Island. There are only villains, all of whom will die. 

It is brilliant that nobody ever finds the murderer. Vera believed it to be Lombard but was wrong. The trope of someone explaining how the murders occurred still happens but in the form of a message in a bottle. Wargrave was the murderer, and he constructed the deaths of every character. Fundamentally, the lack of a hero in this text means everyone is an investigator. However, in a complete twist on most of Christie’s work, nobody succeeds. Even the police only figure out what happened from the message in a bottle. There is no satisfaction from the detective solving the case. There are only ten bodies on an island. 

Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None uses a subversion of traditional mystery tropes to create a true mystery. It is unclear who will die, and with every death, the number of suspects seems to go down. Christie sets up a traditional murder mystery but uses a shifting perspective to show that And Then There Were None is not a typical mystery story. Once the murders start occurring, it becomes increasingly urgent to find the culprit, which encourages both the reader and the characters to rush. Ultimately, And Then There Were None is not just a murder mystery. It is successful because there is a grand scheme rather than a simple crime. And Then There Were None is a great mystery because it breaks the tropes the reader has been trained to expect.