08/30/2005 1:40 PM
Posted by VeggieSteph

Ten Little Indians by Agatha Christie

I have been an Agatha Christie junkie my whole life. I love mystery novels. I read this book when I was much, much younger, and recently scored a big haul of Agatha Christie novel collections while at Half-Price Books. I have been tearing through them like crazy, and Ten Little Indians stood out in the ones I have read so far. (Some of the others were The Seven Dials Mystery, Crooked House, Ordeal by Innocence, Evil Under the Sun, Peril at End House, Murder at Hazelmoor, and Easy to Kill.) Ten Little Indians has to be one of her greatest masterpieces; it practically dances off the page and taunts you to solve the mystery.


Ten strangers all receive mysterious invitations to an island retreat, all from different people for different reasons. Once they get there, their host appears in the form of a voice, accusing them of unspeakable crimes. The strangers start dying off, in ways called out in a poem called Ten Little Indians, and those remaining alive fight to survive and figure out who is the murderer.

The tale is tightly written, with as few words as possible used to show the situation. This heightens the tension you feel. The narrator switches between the guests and an outside third person. Because of this, you get the psychological terror of each as they face their demons, and the longer a person survives, the more you get to know about them. The setting is not clearly defined, but the idea of an isolated island, trapped without hope of rescue is effectively conveyed. The dialogue is a little dated, but not so much that it detracts from the story.

I remembered the story well when I picked it up again, but knowing the ending didn’t diminish the suspense of the plot. To me, that is what makes an excellent mystery. Without a doubt, this is one of the best.