“And Then There Were None ” follows her proven formula of collecting strangers on an isolated and remote location, then implicating them all in a complicated murder. The novel is symbolic of her ability to maintain her proven formula, while brilliantly, completely and utterly discarding it. The new title having been derived from the last five words of the children’s song on which the story is based. Originally published as “Ten Little Niggers” in 1939, the name changed to “And Then There Were None” when published in the United States in January 1940.
I strongly feel, though, that her brilliance is ultimately revealed in her novel, “And Then There Were None”. Her best execution of this concept was her 1934 novel “Murder on The Orient Express”. The events leading up to the murder are deciphered in excruciating detail, finally revealing the guilty party. The mystery is solved in dramatic fashion by a member of the troop who happens also to be a sleuth – professional or amateur, dramatically collecting the surviving suspects, each with motive and alibies, into one room. Her standard approach was to collect a group of individuals, all apparently strangers to one another, and through various circumstances locate them in a situation where they find themselves isolated from authorities and from safety: a secluded resort (“Evil Under the Sun” published 1941) on a train (“Murder on the Orient Express” published 1934), or on a boat (“Death on the Nile” published 1937). In my opinion it is a brilliant approach to her craft.
At that point she would return to the first chapter and begin tweaking her manuscript, adjusting the text to provide motive and opportunity for that person to have committed the crime. Christie admitted that she followed a certain process for most of her writing projects, creating a cast of characters and writing the entire script to the final chapter, then deciding who the murderer is (often the most unlikely and least suspicious character in the book). Her approach to plot and storyline development throughout her novels was methodical and often formulaic. Similarly, the name of best-selling fiction writer Agatha Christie became synonymous as the “Mistress of Mystery”, earning her title having sold more than two billion copies of her novels while becoming the best-selling fiction writer of all time. The name Alfred Hitchcock became synonymous as the “Master of Suspense”, a well-earned title obtained through his direction of over 50 feature films.
Note: The racial terms used in this article are included solely as reference to their use in book titles and poem lyrics as they were used in Christie’s book in 1939.
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