Ten Little Niggers (1939)
| Author | Agatha Christie |
|---|---|
| Year | 1939 |
| Genre | Detective |
There is no detective here. Not at all. Ten people arrive on a secluded island at the invitation of a host none of them have seen, and they quickly find out that each has something to hide. Then they start to dwindle — one by one, in the order set by an old counting rhyme. Christie deliberately deprived herself of the main tool of the genre: there is no one to gather everyone in the living room and explain. The reader is left alone with a shrinking list of suspects, and ultimately has to suspect everyone at once. Hence the signature feeling of the book — not the thrill of solving a mystery, but an increasing claustrophobia. The novel is also known by the title 'And Then There Were None': the counting rhyme that gave the first title became unpronounceable over time, and the book changed its name. The scheme of 'an isolated group, perishing in order' has been endlessly repeated since then — in thrillers, in films, in games — but the original remains disturbingly effective.
The book card in the MegaInet.art catalog — reference information. Files are not distributed. Actual data: Wikidata (CC0).
