And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Chapter One Questions

1. How do the points of view of the individual characters help to build suspense? We learn just a little about each person’s background and personality and begin to wonder immediately why they are invited to the island and what is their connection to the murderer.
2. What do we the reader already know that the characters don’t? How does this help build suspense? We know that a murder (or several) will take place. We start to think about who will be killed and who is the killer.
3. What hints are there that each character has a hidden secret in his or her past? Vera has
4. What do we learn about each of the eight characters introduced in Chapter One from their descriptions?
5. What, if anything, do these characters seem to have in common?
6. Speculate: What reason(s) might Mr. and Mrs. U. N. Owen, the hosts, have in inviting these very different people to Indian Island for the weekend?

Chapter Two Questions

1. There is no “brilliant detective” (i.e. Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes) in this story to serve as an agent of moral order. Why not?
2. Why does Mr. Blore introduce himself as “Mr. Davis, from South Africa”? How does this false-identification tie in to the motif of secrets to be uncovered?
3. How does the description of the island help build suspense?
4. Why does an island make for a good location for a mystery?
5. The last two characters of the story are introduced in Chapter Two. Who are they? What do we think about them based in their description and what we already know and suspect about the other characters?
6. Where is the host of the party?
7. Why does Agatha Christie give the characters (and us) the 10 Little Indians nursery rhyme?
8. What other hints of things to

Questions for Chapters 3 and 4

1. Everyone on the island has been accused of causing the death of someone else. Notice the phrasing of the charges -- Are they all charged with the same thing? They may be responsible for causing a death, but are each of them guilty of murder?
2. How do each of the “guests” react when their secrets are revealed?
3. Who starts putting all the information together? Why is this not suspicious?
4. What do we learn of the person who has gathered all of these characters to the island?
5. Are there any patterns that begin to emerge from the denials to the charges? Look closer to the characters’ social classes and attitudes.
6. Who do you think might really be guilty of their “crime”? Why?
7. The first victim is Anthony Marston. His drink was poisoned. Who had access to his drink and could have poisoned it?
8. Poison is well documented to be the preferred method of women to kill. Does it seem likely that Marston’s killer is a woman? Why?