Don’t you feel—all the time—that there’s someone. Someone watching and waiting?
For Read Christie 2026 I’m going with the recommended read for November, And Then There Were None.
Ten people with dark pasts are gathered on a remote island. In each bedroom is a framed nursery rhyme about ten little soldiers who die one by one. As the guests wait for their host to show up, the island is cut off from the mainland by a storm, and it soon becomes clear that someone is orchestrating a deadly game based on the nursery rhyme with the ten guests as the targets.
You may have heard of Agatha Christie as a cozy mystery writer, and while it is true that many of her books are fun, light-hearted and quite family friendly, this one isn’t one of them. And Then There Were None is dark, cold-blooded, paranoid and eerie, and feels far more like a dark psychological thriller than a cozy mystery. Everyone on the island has something to hide, so everyone is acting suspiciously. Guilt and confessions become needles in a haystack rather than clues to the identity of the killer.
As time ticks on and the death count rises, we are given insights into the minds of the guests and see how they handle the fear and guilt. Some rationalise, some stubbornly refuse to face the facts, some lash out with threats and accusations and some completely give up. It is a study of the dark side of the human psyche, and of the many different ways guilt manifests itself in people’s personalities, emerging as remorse, callousness, self-righteousness or denial.
No one is innocent, and no one is particularly likeable once the polite facade crumbles and their crimes are brought to light. And that is perhaps what makes this story feel so dark. Like Murder on the Orient Express, this is a story where the victims are just as bad as the murderer, and the readers’ own ideas of justice and morality are put to the test, as Agatha Christie asks if it is ever okay to kill a killer and dispense justice outside of the system, if the system has already failed to provide it.
Crime Classic – Mystery – Agatha Christie
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