~All copyright things go to Agatha Christie for her amazing work on And Then There Were None. This book is on my summer must read list, it's a mystery novel. This was really good!!! I love the twist!!! You will love it!!! ~
Mystery novels are enjoyable because of the great scare and the fun puzzles to solve. In my novel, “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie, ten strangers are brought to an island called Indian Island. Each person has a secret which will seal their fate. One by one each is murdered and in the end, none are left. When rescuers arrive it is too late and they are unable to determine what has happened to the victims until a note in a bottle washes up on shore. The note explains the details of all of the murders and why the murderer chose to do what he did. The murderer was Lawrence Wargrave. He was able to accomplish these 9 murders by first pretending to be innocent and then by faking his own death.
The character that I found to be most described was Ms. Emily Brent and it is for this reason that I have chosen to describe her to you. Ms. Brent is a dark hair, fragile, sixty-five year old woman. Like most elderly women, she enjoys knitting and often spends time alone, when she is not talking with her friend, Vera Claythorne. While we don’t know what Ms. Brent’s occupation was, we know that she was paid minimally and therefore that the idea of a free vacation would have been very appealing to her. It is unfortunate that a relaxing vacation would be the death of her.
Ms. Brent is quite a religious woman who strongly believes that God will punish those deserving of it. When Mrs. Rogers suddenly dies Emily Brent believes that God has struck her down because of the wicked sins she has committed. When Mrs. Rogers dies soon after having her “secret” revealed, Ms. Brent coolly states that Mrs. Rogers died from fear and that her death was no accident but “an Act of God” (pg.89). Ms. Brent strongly believes that God holds people accountable for their actions and will strike down sinners. Ms. Brent, having been raised by a Colonel, is a righteous woman with unyielding principles. She “does not approve of lounging” (pg.8) and carries herself in a very proper manner. She strongly dislikes the way the current generation carries themselves and despises their constant complaining and inappropriate behaviour, such as how they dress. Ms. Brent believes that she is perfect and that people, if they knew what was best, should follow her lead. The reader may also get the sense that Ms. Brent is full of herself and that she has no problem stating what she believes and telling others how they should behave.
Emily Brent accepts the fact that everyone, including herself, is under suspicion. When Justice Wargrave accuses everyone of having potentially being involved in the murders, Emily Brent responds by stating
“The idea that I should be accused of taking a fellow creatures life-not to speak of the lives of three fellow creatures-is, of course, quite absurd to anyone who knows anything of my character. But I quite appreciate the fact that we are all strangers to one another and that those circumstances, nobody can be exonerated without the fullest proof. There is, as I have said, a devil among us”. (pg. 139)
While Emily Brent is confident that she is not the murderer, she also feels confident about the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Rogers are guilty of “doing away with the old lady”, Jennifer Brady. She believes they are guilty based on the way they reacted to the message they heard on the gramophone. When they heard the message they were shocked and did not try to explain the situation. Ms. Brent believes that they are guilty of committing the crimes they were accused of in the message and therefore guilty of committing the crimes that are now occurring. When Mrs. Rogers passes away Ms. Brent is convinced she has died of heart failure. When Dr. Armstrong questions what causes her heart to fail, Ms. Brent accusingly says “Conscience!” (pg. 88).
As the deaths continue everyone on the island becomes suspicious of the others. Each person seems to develop a theory about who is responsible. Eventually blame is assigned to Emily Brent. Blore would be the first person to raise suspicion about her actions and her “religious mania”. Blore shares his opinion with the guests, saying “Look here everybody, my opinion is this: we needn’t look farther for the author of these deaths than the dining room at this minute. I would take my oath that woman is the one we are after!” Blore also continues with his theory by saying “She’s the only one who wouldn’t give an explanation after the gramophone record”. The other guests readily agree with his argument and have no reason to go against what he was presenting. They all agree that she “lacks emotion” as she “was completely unmoved” after hearing about the most recent murder. This too leads them to believe she is guilty. Shortly thereafter his theory would be blown out of the water as they would find Emily Brent dead in the dining room alone.
I felt the beginning of the novel “And Then There Were None” was very slow. Within the first fifty pages all the author did was describe the characters. I became confused because it was written in first person and it bounced from one character to the next. Eventually the book began to pick up and I began to enjoy it. As the story came closer to the end, I became more suspicious about who the murderer could be as the characters continued to be eliminated. Surprisingly, you do not find out who the murderer is until the epilogue where you are confronted with an unusual twist. It turns out the murderer was playing dead in order to be able to kill the rest of the guests before committing suicide.
I believe that Ms. Emily Brent was a stereotypical older woman. In the book they describe her as older, fragile and someone who is constantly knitting. I would have preferred this character to be less conventional, along with all the other characters. All in all, this book was quite enjoyable, and the twist was rather unusual.
