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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSTen strangers with no obvious connection to each other are lured to Indian Island, a remote rocky outcrop off the Devon coast, each with a different excuse: a retired judge traveling to visit an old friend, a games mistress hired as a secretary, a doctor summoned for a private consultation, an adventurer paid a hundred guineas for an unnamed job, a spinster invited for a free holiday, an ex-policeman hired to watch the other guests, a reckless young driver, an elderly general, and a married couple engaged as servants. Their host, the mysterious Mr. Owen, never appears. That first evening, after dinner, a recorded voice fills the room and accuses every guest by name of having caused a death that the law could not punish. Before the night is over, one of them is dead, and ten small china Indian figures stand in the center of the dining table, one for each guest, just like the nursery rhyme framed on the wall of every bedroom: "Ten Little Indian Boys."
Free Battle of the Books questions for And Then There Were None
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about And Then There Were None. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a young driver choke to death on a poisoned whiskey after dinner on the first night?
✓ Answer
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Anthony Marston, the careless young driver who killed two children with his car, picks up his glass and dies almost instantly. Dr. Armstrong recognizes the symptoms of potassium cyanide.
- First half
In what book does a butler nervously report to a doctor that only eight little figurines remain?
✓ Answer
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Rogers shows Armstrong that the figures have dropped to eight by the morning after Mrs. Rogers dies. Each missing figure marks another death, and the count begins to feel like a countdown.
- First half
In what book do survivors search the island and accept that the killer must be one of themselves?
✓ Answer
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Three men finish searching the island and conclude no stranger is hiding among the rocks or in the house. Wargrave's logical court-style speech afterward forces everyone to accept that one of them must be the murderer.
- Second half
In what book does a victim die from a hypodermic injection while a bee buzzes against the window?
✓ Answer
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Emily Brent is found dead in the dining room with a syringe mark on her neck and a bumblebee buzzing at the window. The killer staged the bee as a flourish to match the nursery rhyme's fifth verse about a hive.
- Second half
In what book does an athletic governess remember a boy begging to swim out to a rock?
✓ Answer
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Vera flashes back to her young charge Cyril pleading to swim out to a rock, and to the moment she encouraged him to do it. Her memory of letting him drown for the sake of a man she loved haunts her throughout her final hours.
- Near the end
In what book do three survivors heliograph with a mirror from the cliffs of an island?
✓ Answer
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Vera, Lombard, and Blore take turns flashing a mirror from the highest point of the island to signal SOS to the mainland. No one answers, and they realize the boats cannot reach them until the swell goes down.
