Book · 1939
And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie
Ten strangers are lured to an island under false pretenses and killed one by one, in the exact order a nursery rhyme predicts.
What does Reddit think of And Then There Were None?
r/suggestmeabook drives this one hard: 422 of the 461 total mentions, dwarfing r/printSF's 31 and r/Fantasy's 8. The book shows up almost exclusively as an answer, not a topic — someone asks for a mystery and three replies later here's And Then There Were None. The recurring frame is Christie-as-starter: recommenders route newcomers here before Roger Ackroyd or Murder on the Orient Express, treating it as the entry point to her catalogue rather than a discovery for people who already read mysteries. The Knives Out comparison comes up unprompted, more than once, usually to argue Christie earned the trope first. Mentions peaked at 105 in 2020, cratered to 28 in 2024, then nearly doubled to 64 in 2025, a comeback with no clear cause in the thread data. Nobody in the sample argues against reading it. The debate, such as it is, runs elsewhere: whether it's the best Christie or just the most famous one.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · locked-room mystery
- · isolated island setting
- · guilt and moral justice
- · the classic whodunit structure
Common praise
- + Recommenders route beginners here before Roger Ackroyd or Orient Express, treating it as the Christie starter pack.
- + The Knives Out comparison surfaces unprompted across threads, with commenters arguing Christie got there first.
- + r/suggestmeabook regulars call it the easiest way into the author's whole catalogue.
Common criticism
- − The book rarely gets discussed for craft; it mostly shows up as a two-word reply to someone else's request.
- − No thread in the sample argues against it, so the one real disagreement, best Christie versus merely most famous, never gets fully argued out.
Who it's for
Start here if you've never read Christie and want the one everyone already knows. r/suggestmeabook treats it as the default answer to 'give me a mystery,' so newcomers get it first and Roger Ackroyd or Orient Express second. Fans of Knives Out looking for the source material will recognize the setup within a chapter. Mystery veterans who've already read Christie's big three should expect nothing here they haven't seen recommended before.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for And Then There Were None?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“Maybe Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz? But honestly I think Christie is better than Horowitz. Christie’s “And Then There Were None” is iconic and very easy to read — whereas her “Crooked House” is part of the inspiration for Knives Out. If you liked the family/inheritance/clue-seeking aspect, ma…
“I'd try Murder on the Orient Express, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and And Then There Were None. 3 of her classics!
“Especially And Then There Were None
“I haven't seen Knives Out, but I did fall in love with Christie's books as a teenager. If there's some wiggle room on Christie, I recommend starting with And Then There Were None - 10 people are invited to a remote island under false pretenses, and they start dying one by one in a manner predicted b…
“Anything Agatha Christie, but mostly popular is and then there were none
“Try *And Then There Were None* by Agatha Christie. It’s a classic locked-room mystery and is just SO good.
“And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
“Agatha Christie is the queen of mystery! I love And Then There Were None. I’ve been into Nordic murder mysteries lately— The Chestnut Man and The Keeper of Lost Causes.
Convinced? Pick up And Then There Were None
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with And Then There Were None — counted from the comments, not curated.
Flowers for Algernon
Daniel Keyes
A man with a low IQ undergoes surgery that turns him into a genius, and has to watch the intelligence, and everyone's honesty, fade back out.
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury
A fireman whose job is burning books starts wondering what's actually in the ones he's paid to destroy.
Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell
A minor bureaucrat rewrites history for a living until the Party decides his private thoughts are the real problem.
Foundation
Isaac Asimov
A mathematician predicts the fall of a galactic empire and hides the fix inside an encyclopedia nobody will read for a thousand years.
The Eye of the World
Robert Jordan
A farm boy's village burns in one night, and the Aes Sedai who saves him says the Dark One marked him before he could walk.
Dune
Frank Herbert
A duke's son survives his family's betrayal on a desert planet and becomes the prophet who leads its people to war.
And Then There Were None — frequently asked
Is And Then There Were None the best Agatha Christie book?+
Reddit doesn't fully settle this. It's the most-recommended Christie by far, 422 of 461 subreddit mentions on r/suggestmeabook alone, but the argument that surfaces is whether that popularity means it's her best work or just her most famous.
What does Reddit think of And Then There Were None compared to Knives Out?+
Favorably, and possessively. Commenters bring up the comparison unprompted to argue Christie originated the trapped-suspects trope decades before the movie, with one thread (↑285) recommending it directly to a Knives Out fan looking for more of the same setup.
Is And Then There Were None a good starting point for Agatha Christie?+
Yes, per the data. It's the default recommendation across 422 r/suggestmeabook mentions, routinely paired with or placed ahead of Roger Ackroyd and Murder on the Orient Express in starter-pack threads.
Why did mentions of And Then There Were None drop in 2024?+
Unclear from the data. Mentions fell to 28 in 2024, the lowest of the seven tracked years, down from 105 in 2020, then nearly doubled back to 64 in 2025. Nothing in the sampled quotes explains the dip or the rebound.