And Then There Were None ~ Agatha Christie

The original title of this book, published in 1939, was ‘Ten Little Niggers’, later changed (surprisingly!) to ‘Ten Little Indians’ by its US publishers because of ‘the pejorative term’ – presumably the American Indians were less vocal about racism than the African Americans? The mind boggles. In any case, according to Wikipedia, it was republished under the current title in 2001.

The story revolves around a disparate group of people, gathered in an unfamiliar environment, who proceed to get murdered one by one: in this case, each has been lured to a remote island by written invitation promising them employment etc. Their hosts, wonderfully calling themselves Mr. And Mrs. U.N. Owen, are to be absent, and the guests are to be cared for by a resident housekeeper and butler.

Each member of the group, while respectable on the surface, has a skeleton in the closet and his/her own reasons for accepting the opportunity of a fresh start, particularly as the island, Soldier Island (originally Nigger Island, then Indian Island etc) has been in the news with juicy rumours of a celebrity owner.

Helen