And Then There Were None is a cult classic written by Agatha Christie in 1939. The book is a fantastic novel about 10 people who are invited as guests to a remote island by an unseen host named as "Mr Owen". Christie portrays in the book as to how being close to the same group of people for quite a period of time can send someone mad and be depressing. As well as this, there is a darker concept... murder. On the night of arrival, the first character, Anthony Marston dies shortly after the supposed Mr Owen's voice is broadcasted around the room making accusations for each guest by a record that was placed on the grammar phone by Thomas Rogers (the butler) by order of Mr Owen. Marston is the first to die as he committed the least guilty crime, an unintentional accident caused purely by recklessness. Before Marston dies, Ethel Rogers, wife of Thomas Rogers, and the maid hired by Mr Owen, collapses under shock from the accusation made by Mr Owen and is taken up to her bed, where Dr Armstrong gives her a light sedative to help her sleep. The next day, she is discovered dead, having died in her sleep. Having had two deaths in under 12 hours, the guests get more suspicious, especially that since the two victims have passed on, two of the little soldier boy figurines on the dining table have disappeared out of the overall ten. The General is portrayed as to having a deeper sense of the situation than the others, as he states that none of them will ever leave this island before leaving the room. Later on, Vera Claythorne walks down to the beach and tries to empathize with The General and give him some company, though because of his senile mind he mistakes her for his wife and then apologizes, Vera then seeks reassurance in him by asking, "Do you think that we will leave this island?" in reply, The General states again that none of them will ever leave the island. Feeling worried and intimidated, Vera runs back to the house to escape the feeling. At lunch when everyone is about to start eating, Lombard travels to the beach to tell the General that lunch is ready. He returns alone telling everyone that the General is dead, having been struck on the head from behind by a blunt object. At dawn the next day Rogers is found dead in the woodshed with a axe having split his cranium (One chopped himself in half and then there were six) and now the remaining six guests are growing more suspicious of each other. Popular deduction between the guests decides that Emily Brent is the killer, but is proved wrong when she is found dead, with a needle puncture mark in her neck, and a dead bee on the side to make her death complete the "stung by a bee" rhyme.
With only five guests left and the intensity of the situation increasing, Justice Wargrave proposes that the five of them sit down to a meeting at the dining table to confess their guilt, and thinks that in doing so will safely reveal the killer. When it is Vera's turn to confess, she says that she is cold and asks permission to go upstairs and get her jacket. The others agree, and shortly after going upstairs a loud scream is heard. The four guests downstairs make a rush for Vera, and in the darkness a shot is fired. Then, when the guests return downstairs they find the judge, having never moved from the table, dead wearing a judge's wig and cloak. He was shot in the head, so it seems. Then, when the four remaining guests are asleep, Blore hears someone sneaking out of the house. When he checks on the two others who remain in their rooms, Lombard and Vera, it is discovered that the doctor is missing, and from this they suspect he is the killer. Shortly after, Lombard, Blore and Vera decide that it would be safer to stay on the beach for the night. In the early morning, Blore complains of hunger and decides to take a chance and go back to the house and eat there on his own. Back on the beach, Lombard and Vera hear a cry of pain and run back to the house, finding that a marble bear figure had been dropped from Vera's balcony onto Blore's head, completing the "A big bear bugged one" rhyme. Lombard and Vera go back to the beach where they feel safe, and Vera says they should take a swim. They swim in the sea for a while, then Lombard spots what appears to be a mound of clothes near some rocks. It is the missing Doctor, found to have been dead for hours. When Vera and Lombard "got a little closer", Vera took his gun and then points it at him. They suspect each other deeply now, and in a fierce heat Vera shoots him out of fear for her life. Vera returns to the house, smashing one of the two remaining soldier boys. She then walks up to her room, finding a noose ready to be used with a stool. Having just killed a man and the appearance of a noose being hypnotizing, she hangs herself, "And Then There Were None".