And Then There Were None (SPOILERS)

[OscarGuy]

And one other point. He says she "would have been to realize that there is in fact someone else still alive who just put that noose there."

Really? In her mind, everyone was dead. She saw the Judge's corpse. She saw everyone's corpses...she knows there to be no one alive. She's been told there's no one on the island and no one to get there. It further adds into her mind telling her its the ghost of Cyril.

And, sure, if Christie hadn't set that up or had dropped it in last minute, it would have felt forced and illogical, but she didn't. She established the psychological nervousness of the character and kept pointing it out throughout. It's a great work of literary character development, IMO.

[OscarGuy]

Ah. Here's where the psychological condition of Vera Claythorne comes into play. All throughout the story, she keeps imagining that Cyril, the boy who drowned on her watch, whom she feels responsible for allowing to die, has been torturing her, making her think he's haunting her. In the end, faced with the belief that Cyril must be torturing her from beyond the grave, she decides to give him what he desires, her death as compensation for allowing him to die.

[Big Magilla]

As so eloquently put by a poster to the IMDb. message boards:

Let´s suppose for a while that you are Vera, the last remaining survivor, you just shot Lombard not because you are a killer, because you think HE is the killer and therefore you DON'T WANT TO DIE. Then you just go inside the house and... kill yourself in the noose you just found? COME ON! Only a fool would have done that.

And if you guys suggest that probably she was afraid that police may come and have her hanged anyway think about this: when Vera found the noose, (which was after Lombard´s death so it would be impossible to him to have set that), then the normal reaction for Vera would have been to realize that there is in fact someone else still alive who just put that noose there.

[OscarGuy]

Ok. What exactly is the "plot hole" in And Then There Were None. I'd like it explained rationally. I've seen several people suggest there's a hole, but I've read the book enough times to probably be able to point out errors in any plot hole. For me, it's one of the most intricately plotted and carefully mediated novels I've ever read. I loved every minute of it.

I did not like the movie. I didn't find it witty or tense, I found it relatively lame. I think Witness for the Prosecution is her best adaptation and I think Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express are right below that (my only problem with Nile is that I love Peter Ustinov, but he's too large and too tall to be Poirot even if he does give a solid performance).

Anyway, please tell me your theories, I'd love to hear them.