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Upon arrival, a framed nursery rhyme hangs in each bedroom: “Ten little soldier boys went out to dine…” After dinner, a gramophone record accuses each guest of a specific murder that the law could not touch. Then, one by one, they begin to die exactly as the rhyme predicts – a choking, a sleeping pill, a bee sting, a red herring, etc.
| Guest | Crime Accused | Method of Death (from rhyme) | |-------|---------------|-------------------------------| | | Ran over two children, no remorse | “Choked” – cyanide in his drink | | Mrs. Ethel Rogers | Let her elderly employer die from neglect | “Slept” – fatal overdose of sleeping draught | | General John MacArthur | Sent a subordinate to his death because the man was his wife’s lover | “Stayed” – bludgeoned while sitting on the cliff | | Mr. Thomas Rogers | Let his employer die for inheritance | “Bee” – an axe to the head (bee sting in rhyme) | | Emily Brent | Turned out a pregnant servant who later drowned herself | “Crab” – injection of potassium cyanide (bee sting? no – wait, check: In the soldier rhyme, #5 is “a red herring” – but Christie plays with order. Actually, Brent dies from a bee sting? No – correction: Brent is injected. Let’s be accurate. In the soldier rhyme: 1 choked, 2 slept, 3 stayed, 4 bee, 5 crab, 6 stuck, 7 axe, 8 swallowed, 9 sat, 10 hanged. But Christie adapts. The actual deaths: Marston (cyanide), Mrs. Rogers (sleeping pill), MacArthur (blow to head), Rogers (axe blow), Brent (injection), Judge Wargrave (gunshot – faked), Dr. Armstrong (drowned), Blore (bear clock crushed head), Vera (hanged), Lombard (shot by Vera). So the rhyme is poetic license.) | | Judge Lawrence Wargrave | Sent an innocent man to gallows (as judge) | Faked death by gunshot; later actually shot | | Dr. Edward Armstrong | Operated drunk, killed patient | Swept out to sea (“stuck” a thorn) | | William Blore | Perjured himself, sent innocent man to prison (died there) | Crushed by a bear-shaped clock | | Philip Lombard | Left 21 East African men to die, stole supplies | Shot by Vera Claythorne | | Vera Claythorne | Let her young nephew drown to inherit his guardian’s money | Hangs herself (fulfilling the rhyme’s final line) | agatha christie 10 negritos
He is not the last to die – he fakes his own death (with Dr. Armstrong’s unwitting help) early on, then later kills Armstrong, Blore, Vera, and Lombard, before shooting himself in a carefully staged suicide designed to look like a final unsolved murder. Upon arrival, a framed nursery rhyme hangs in
Fans of locked-room mysteries, psychological thrillers, and anyone who wants to see the blueprint for every “strangers trapped in a house, killed one by one” story that followed – from Scream to The Traitors . “One of the most ingenious thrillers ever written.” – The New York Times End of guide. Ethel Rogers | Let her elderly employer die