And Then There Were None, Week 4

Welcome to the final discussion of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. 

Did you figure out the mystery before the final page? I definitely didn't. I got to the epilogue, and I was so confused. I thought for sure that we weren't going to have any closure, and we weren't going to know who was committing all of the crimes. So, I was so relieved when everything was cleared up in the final letter. Were you shocked? I didn't suspect Justice Wargrave at all. I didn't think that his death was faked. 

Were you satisfied by the ending? Did you think it was kind of a cop-out to have all of the mystery explained in the last couple of pages? I wasn't overly happy with the way Vera's story ended. I didn't like her whole death scene at all. But, then again, I didn't like her backstory very much, either. I couldn't believe that she purposefully let Cecil drown. That was so incredibly heartless and sad. I'm glad that Hugo decided to drop her after the incident because I would have hated for her to be rewarded for her actions. 

This section started with the murder of Mr. Rogers, and then, in the next chapter, Miss. Brent meets her end after seeing the bee buzzing around. After Miss Brent's murder, it seems like suspicion falls on Dr. Armstrong again because he is the only one who seemingly would bring a hypodermic needle to the island. Why do you think Christie kept leading the reader towards Dr. Armstrong? Did you ever suspect him, or did you think he was just a distraction, so we couldn't figure out who the real murderer was? 

I thought the creepiest "death" was the one Justice Wargrave set up for himself. I didn't like imagining him with the wool yarn on his head, and the whole scene seemed really creepy. Do you think he added all of those extra details to distract from the fact that he was only pretending to be dead? His actual death, described in his final letter, was also pretty crazy. It's wild that he would be able to set up everything so that the gun would go off and actually shoot him. It's all just so hard to believe. 

The most surprising death, to me, was Lombard's. I was shocked that Vera actually shot him. I couldn't believe it at all. I hoped that they would keep level heads and make it off the island. But, of course, that didn't happen. I didn't like Lombard because of his crime and apparent lack of remorse for his actions, but I never suspected that he was the killer. Did you ever suspect him? 

Justice Wargrave writes in his letter that he was going to put the letter in a bottle and throw it in the sea. Do you think anyone ever found it? Can you imagine what kind of a ruckus it would cause if the letter was ever found? 

What are your final thoughts about the book? Do you think you enjoyed it? Would you recommend it to a friend? If you liked the book and want to read and watch more things like it, check out this list I created. Please let me know if you end up checking out and enjoying anything on the list!

Before you go, check out this article and video about an Agatha Christie exhibit that toured England. There are so many cool photos in the video--make sure you check it out! And, if you're dreaming about someday taking a trip to London, you might want to bookmark this site that gives great information about Agatha Christie sights you can see in London. 

Make sure you watch the video clip below, too, to learn more behind the scenes information about the BBC television adaptation. 

Thanks for joining us this month. Make sure to leave me a comment, so I know how you enjoyed the mystery. Next month, we're reading The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon. I hope you read along with us!