"And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie

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(A classic !)

Ten strangers find themselves being invited to a remote island off the British Coast for a weekend retreat. Unbeknownst to them, they have all been invited there by an absentee host who goes by the name 'Mr. Owen.' After a lovely dinner, the guests are forced to listen to a recording accusing each and every single one of them of murder.

And thus begins one of the great murder mysteries of all time, a tale of ten guests, who like the famous poem 'Ten Little Indians,' find themselves disappearing one by one in the middle of nowhere.

At the top of the story, Christie sets up the characters and the environment so illustratively and descriptively that we can’t help but feel a sense of sadness and madness as we futilely watch them get picked off one by one. In many ways, she makes us sympathize with them despite their sordid pasts, which makes the experience all the more dreadful and terrifying. As the walls close in on them, so too do they close in on us. Whether death by whisky or a bullet to the head, every murder is done in shadows and darkness, crippling us as passive readers knowing full well that more tragedy is just on the horizon.

Christie not only traps her characters in this house of horrors, but she traps us as well. We know from the title where all this is headed and there is nothing we can do to stop it except turn every page faster and faster until we know the secret' until we know what it is that has led these ten little Indians to face their judgment once and for all.

https://www.bookofthemonth.com/and-then-there-were-none-321