In her her work, And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie builds suspense in a variety of ways through both literary elements as well as mystery genre elements. With the premise of ten strangers who are invited to a remote island by a mysterious host, Christie sets the tone of suspense from the beginning through dramatic irony by introducing readers to each main character and letting readers know that the invitations each character received was signed with a different name. Within the first couple of chapters, readers have more information than the characters.
By having the characters travel to a remote island with no other inhabitants, Christie uses the literary element of setting to enhance the suspense. To further this concept, Christie uses the weather to trap the characters on the island. When a storm hits, it prevents anyone from being able to bring a boat to the island help rescue the characters. The author not only pairs the setting with inclement weather, but she also adds foreshadowing. Before the storm hits there are several instances where characters are informed that the island is frequently cut off from the mainland in the event of a storm.
Throughout the story Christie does a good job of keeping readers and characters in suspense as they try to figure out who is the mysterious host, U.N. Owen. Christie uses many clues, like the nursery rhyme poem that is found in each character's room, to help readers try to figure out the mystery. Christie also uses red herring clues that often lead characters to doubt each other and cause readers to suspect many of the main characters.
Christie creates suspense in And Then There Were None in multiple ways. Suspense is a feeling of anxiety or uncertainty that occurs when people don't know how a situation (or book) is going to turn out or what is going to happen next.
In this mystery, a group of people is gathered together on an island by a host they do not know. That, to begin with, is mysterious and suspenseful. Why were all these people invited to this location or offered jobs here?
Second, the host doesn't show up, but he does leave a recording. The recording ratchets up the suspense or anxiety level even higher. On it, their host accuses each of the guests of committing a murder that they got away with.
To make things even more interesting, one of the guests, Anthony Marstan, dies almost immediately, as his drink was poisoned with cyanide. The recording had accused him of murdering two young children by driving recklessly with them in the car. Soon after his death, the remaining guests and the two servants find a broken "Ten Little Indians" figurine and realize that Marston's death corresponds to the "choking" death of the first of the Ten Little Indians. That this murder was well-planned also adds to the anxiety as it suggests the murderer is intelligent and thinking ahead.
By this time, the suspense level is very high. Who found out about all these people with unsavory pasts, and who brought them here? Who is murdering them? Who will be killed next? The number of unanswered questions multiplies the suspense, along with the fact that more people obviously are slated to be killed.
The suspense is compounded by the fact that high waves mean nobody can get on or off the island. The killer must be among them—but who could it be?
As more and more people are murdered, the anxiety builds.
Christie creates suspense, in sum, by depicting a situation in which a mysterious person brings a group of people to an island, traps them there, and slowly kills them off, one by one, as if they are sitting ducks. The pages keep turning as we wait to see who will die next and how it will correspond the to the "Ten Little Indians" rhyme. We also want to know who masterminded this elaborate plot.
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