For my third book of the year, I read Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. Murder/mystery is not my genre, but when this book came across my radar, I decided to read it. I’d never read Christie before, and she is supposed to be one of the greatest writers of all time!

It was fun to read a book that provided the foundation for the dinner party murder mysteries that are still so interesting to this day. The plot and the set up were meticulous, amusing, and layered. In fact, I took great interest in the plot, which was more clearly constructed to my view than most other books I read. I notoriously have a difficult time seeing the plot structure after I’m done reading, and especially not while I’m reading–at least not beyond the most basic structures.

I can say that the book was not very frightening. (I no longer have any tolerance for being frightened.) The book could have been made more frightening had Christie spend more time in character development. The characters sometimes seemed like flat caricatures (though not always!), and it can be hard to take caricatures seriously. But, it was still a fun page turner, and I wondered whodunnit until the very end.

One warning–I did a quick internet search on Christie before reading the book and was warned of some offensive and outdated language, which I did find in the book and might’ve even unknowingly glossed over if it wasn’t for the reminder.

I could see this novel being a wild success in film format, and it looks like films were made in 1945 and again in 2015. Maybe I’ll try to find the 2015 miniseries! I’d love to know if you’ve read the book or seen it on film or in theater. Let me know!