And Then There Were None
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50 free And Then There Were None trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None is the mystery that other mysteries are measured against. Ten strangers are invited to a lonely island, each of them is accused of a killing, and then the guests begin to die one by one, in step with a nursery rhyme framed in every bedroom. Christie counted it among her finest pieces of plotting, and it has stayed in print since 1939. This quiz covers the whole book: who the ten characters are and what each is accused of, how they meet their ends, the clues and false trails, the famous ending, and the story behind the novel's changing titles. A final stretch looks at the stage, screen and game versions. It suits students revising the novel for class, book clubs that have just finished it, and Christie fans who think they remember every detail. Each answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In And Then There Were None, the absent hosts are Mr and Mrs U.N. Owen, a name punning on which word?
Unknown
Unknown is what the retired judge hears in the name, and he is the one who points it out after dinner. By then the guests have realised that not one of them has ever met their hosts.
Q 02Roughly how many copies has And Then There Were None sold, making it the world's best-selling mystery novel?
100 million
100 million copies and more had been sold by 2007, putting it among the best-selling books of any kind. It has also been turned into more plays, films and broadcasts than any other Agatha Christie story.
Q 03Which animated sitcom parodied And Then There Were None in a 2010 hour-long episode called And Then There Were Fewer?
Family Guy
Family Guy opened its ninth season with the spoof, in which a dinner party turns into a string of murders. It was also the first episode of the series to air in high definition.
Q 04After the first dinner in And Then There Were None, what delivers a murder accusation against everyone present?
A gramophone record
A gramophone record does it, put on by the butler, who is only following written instructions. The voice ends by asking whether the accused have anything to say in their defence.
Q 05And Then There Were None strands its ten strangers on a rocky island off the coast of which English county?
Devon
Devon was home ground for Agatha Christie, who was born in the seaside town of Torquay. The BBC's 2015 version shot many of its beach and harbour scenes next door in Cornwall instead.
Q 06What sets the murders in And Then There Were None apart from those in most Agatha Christie mysteries?
No sleuth solves them
No sleuth solves them: the police in the epilogue are left baffled, and the truth only comes out because the murderer chose to write it down. Christie said the puzzle needed that epilogue to be explained.
Q 07When Agatha Christie turned And Then There Were None into a 1943 stage play, how did she soften the ending?
Two characters survive
Two characters survive on stage, Vera and Lombard, who turn out to be innocent and fall in love. Christie and her producers feared audiences would stay away from so grim a finale.
Q 08Which guest in And Then There Were None is the killer, driven by a lifelong urge to kill only the guilty?
Lawrence Wargrave
Lawrence Wargrave spent a career on the bench sentencing murderers to death and came to long to kill someone himself. He fakes his own death partway through the story so that nobody suspects him.
Q 09How does the killer's written confession reach the police at the very end of And Then There Were None?
In a bottle at sea
In a bottle at sea, the confession drifts until a trawler hauls it up in its nets. The killer admits to craving recognition for a crime that nobody could work out.
Q 10In And Then There Were None, what vanishes from the dining-room table each time one of the guests dies?
A china figurine
A china figurine goes missing after every death, from a set of ten that stood in the centre of the table. The butler is the first to spot that one has gone, on the night of the first death.
Q 11Under which title did Pocket Books sell And Then There Were None in the United States from 1964 to 1986?
Ten Little Indians
Ten Little Indians came from an American version of the counting rhyme in the plot. The first British title used a racial slur, and UK editions only dropped it in 1985.
Q 12Which reckless young driver is the first guest to die in And Then There Were None, choking on his drink?
Anthony Marston
Anthony Marston dies within minutes of hearing the accusations, one of only two guests to admit the charge at once. His only regret over the deaths he caused was losing his driving licence.
Q 13Which poison, slipped into an after-dinner drink, kills the first victim in And Then There Were None?
Cyanide
Q 21In And Then There Were None, General MacArthur sent a young officer to certain death after discovering what?
His wife's affair
His wife's affair came to light when she put two letters in the wrong envelopes, so the general read the one meant for the officer. On the island he comes to accept that nobody will leave alive.
Q 22Emily Brent of And Then There Were None is accused over the suicide of which person she threw out of her house?
Her pregnant maid
Her pregnant maid, Beatrice Taylor, drowned herself after being dismissed for expecting a child outside marriage. Miss Brent feels no guilt and will only talk about it to another woman.
Q 23Why did a patient of Dr Armstrong die on the operating table years before And Then There Were None begins?
Cyanide works so fast that the others first assume the young man has killed himself. The doctor checks the remaining glasses and finds nothing wrong with any of them.
Q 14How does Vera Claythorne, who believes she is the last one alive, die in And Then There Were None?
She hangs herself
She hangs herself with a noose the killer has left ready in her bedroom, completing the last line of the nursery rhyme. Guilt over a drowned child finally overwhelms her.
Q 15In And Then There Were None, what cuts the island off from the mainland just as the third body is found?
A storm at sea
A storm at sea breaks while the general's body is being carried indoors, and no boat can cross. The boatman returns as soon as the weather lets him, far too late to save anyone.
Q 16Which organisation is left with ten bodies and no explanation in the epilogue of And Then There Were None?
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard pieces together the first six deaths from the victims' diaries but cannot say who killed the rest. Its officers can show only that somebody was still alive after the last guest died.
Q 17Which Hercule Poirot novel was inspired by the same real-life island hotel as And Then There Were None?
Evil Under the Sun
Evil Under the Sun followed two years later and puts Poirot in a seaside hotel modelled on the same place. The David Suchet television version was filmed on the real island.
Q 18In And Then There Were None, Dr Armstrong has his consulting rooms at which famous London address?
Harley Street
Harley Street marks him out as a doctor at the top of his trade. He travels to the island believing he has been summoned there for his medical skills.
Q 19Which item, stolen then returned to Philip Lombard's bedside drawer, later kills him in And Then There Were None?
His revolver
His revolver is lifted from his pocket on the beach by Vera Claythorne. She shoots him as he lunges for it, sure that he is the murderer.
Q 20In modern editions of And Then There Were None, what is the isolated rock where the ten guests are stranded called?
Soldier Island
Soldier Island matches the Ten Little Soldier Boys of the nursery rhyme framed on every bedroom wall. Earlier editions gave both the rhyme and the island other names.
He operated while drunk
He operated while drunk, and the memory comes back in a vivid dream on his first night on the island. The killer later uses his trusting nature to stage a fake death.
Q 24William Blore of And Then There Were None is accused of which crime that sent the innocent James Landor to prison?
Perjury
Perjury earned Landor a life sentence, and he died in prison soon afterwards. Blore was a police inspector at the time and now works as a private investigator.
Q 25What does Philip Lombard of And Then There Were None admit doing to a group of East African tribesmen?
Leaving them to starve
Leaving them to starve after taking their food is a charge he admits without any sign of remorse. Only one other guest owns up as readily.
Q 26The butler and cook in And Then There Were None, Thomas and Ethel Rogers, are accused of letting whom die?
Their former employer
Their former employer, an old woman in poor health, died when they held back her medicine so that they could inherit. The cook is so haunted by it that she faints when the charge is read out.
Q 27What job did Vera Claythorne of And Then There Were None hold when the small boy in her care drowned?
Governess
Governess was the post she lost when the boy died, and she now teaches games at a third-rate girls' school. She let him swim out too far on purpose, then swam after him as if to save him.
Q 28In And Then There Were None, Vera Claythorne let young Cyril drown so that which man would inherit a fortune?
Her lover Hugo
Her lover Hugo was the boy's uncle, and stood to inherit the estate and marry her if the child died. Instead he sensed what she had done and left her.
Q 29What heavy object, dropped from Vera Claythorne's window, kills William Blore in And Then There Were None?
A bear-shaped clock
A bear-shaped clock made of marble crushes his skull, letting the killer tick off the rhyme's line about a bear's hug. Blore had gone back to the house alone to fetch food.
Q 30What household chore is the butler Thomas Rogers doing when he is killed in And Then There Were None?
Chopping firewood
Chopping firewood for the kitchen fire leaves him alone before breakfast, and he is struck from behind with an axe. He had carried on serving meals after Mrs Rogers was found dead.