And then there were none, book #54

Whew.  That is about all I have for this one!  Rebecca's friend Emily got me hooked on this book and I must say it was quite a change from my usual reading material. First of all, it is not classified as my lovely "Christian fiction." Secondly, it was originally written in 1939, the same year my dad was born.  And finally, it was written in good old "English English" with properness all over it.  

All in all, it was a really good book.  I do love me some mysteries and this one is completely loaded with it.  All the way to the end you are wondering "whodunnit??"  Even the last sentence "...kicked the chair away" makes you want to scream ..... BUT WAIT....WAIT...WAIT .... like a movie whose ending you are left to figure out for yourself.  (I hate those, for the record.  I like closure!)  Luckily there is an epilogue with the police and examiners, and even they are stumped after going over every shred of evidence ... but then.... well I'm not giving it all away ....

I could not find a good summary on Amazon, but I found this at Wikipedia (no comment....) :

Eight people – Lawrence Wargrave, Vera Claythorne, Philip Lombard, General John Macarthur, Emily Brent, Anthony Marston, Dr Edward Armstrong and William Blore – are en route to Indian Island, off the coast of Devon. Each person has an invitation, most in writing, in some cases seemingly from actual friends or acquaintances, tailored to his or her personal circumstances, i.e. ranging from offers of employment for some to an unexpected late summer holiday for others. The island, although remote, had been the subject of some relatively recent news gossip, with differing, mostly false, reports about its purchase by a new owner. After arriving on the island, the guests are informed by the butler and cook, a married couple, Thomas and Ethel Rogers, that their hosts, Mr and Mrs Owen (Ulick Norman Owen and Una Nancy Owen) are not present but will arrive soon, which the guests all find odd. They find a framed copy of the nursery rhyme "Ten Little Soldiers" ("Niggers" or "Indians" in respective earlier editions) hanging on the wall.
After the evening meal, guests notice ten soldier figurines on the dining room table. When a victim dies as described in the rhyme, one figure will go missing or be found broken into pieces. Each guest was lured by an individually tailored pretext, none can leave without the boatman, who has been instructed not to return to the island. As instructed by Isaac Morris, the servant for "Mr and Mrs Owens", the manservant Rogers plays a gramophone recording as he had been instructed to do which accuses each person in the house of having intentionally caused the death(s) of another (others), but had evaded earthly justice.

I'm ready to go back to my sweet little pioneer Christmas stories now!!

O:)
Melissa