And Then There Were None characters

Appears from the start

A recently retired judge, elderly, precise, and famously severe on the bench, invited to the island by a half-remembered acquaintance. Cold, shrewd, and long accustomed to weighing evidence and passing sentence, he brings a courtroom's habit of authority to the gathering. Among the strangers assembled on the isolated island he soon emerges as a calm, analytic presence, the sort of man others instinctively look to for order when things begin to go wrong. His reputation is that of a hard judge, known for guiding juries firmly toward conviction.

Appears from the start

A young, capable games mistress hired, she believes, to serve as secretary to the island's absent hostess, and glad of the summer work. She once looked after a small boy near the sea, a chapter of her past that plainly still troubles her. Intelligent and outwardly composed, Vera watches the other guests carefully as the strange weekend unfolds, and her self-control is steadily tested by the accusations and mounting fear that grip the house.

Appears from the start

A tough, resourceful soldier of fortune, lean and watchful, engaged through an agent for an unspecified job that hints at possible danger. Cool under pressure and frankly amoral about his own past, he arrives armed with a revolver, which sets him apart from the other guests. Adventurous and quick-thinking, Lombard treats the gathering with wary calculation, sizing up the situation and the people around him, and proves one of the more capable and self-reliant of those stranded on the island.

Appears from the start

A successful Harley Street physician, prosperous and a little nervous, who has come to the island believing he was engaged to quietly look after the health of the hostess. Respectable and reassured by his professional standing, he is at first inclined toward rational explanations for the odd events. His medical knowledge makes him a useful and much-consulted figure as the weekend darkens, though the strain steadily wears at his composure.

Appears from the start

A stolid, heavyset former police inspector now working as a private investigator, who travels to the island under a false name and a thin cover story. Practical, suspicious, and used to sizing people up, he has been hired to keep a professional eye on the guests and the household. Blunt and dogged, Blore brings a policeman's instincts to the mystery, though his bluff confidence is gradually worn away as the situation grows more sinister.

Appears from the start

An elderly, retired army general, an honored veteran of the First World War, invited under the pretext of a reunion with old military acquaintances. Dignified but visibly weary and withdrawn, he seems burdened by something in his past. Of all the guests, he is among the first to sense that none of them will be allowed to leave the island, meeting the gathering dread with a strange, resigned calm.

Appears from the start

A rigid, elderly spinster of severe religious conviction, invited by a letter suggesting an old acquaintance from a past holiday. Upright, self-righteous, and unshakably certain of her own virtue, she disapproves of most of the company and feels no need to explain herself to anyone. She faces the mounting horrors with cold composure and an untroubled conscience, convinced that she, at least, has nothing to reproach herself for.

Appears from the start

A wealthy, handsome, and reckless young man who roars up to the coast in a fast, expensive car, delighted at the prospect of a lively weekend. Careless and self-absorbed, he lives for speed and pleasure and gives little thought to consequences. His high spirits and heedless charm set him apart from the more guarded guests as the party assembles on the island.

Appears from the start

The unknown host who has lured all ten guests and servants to the island under different false pretenses, signing the invitations with the initials U. N. Owen, a name none of the guests can connect to any real person and which read aloud sounds like "Unknown." Owen never appears to greet them, and as the weekend begins a recorded voice, set to play on the host's instructions, accuses every person present of having caused a death and escaped justice for it. The absent Owen is the hidden intelligence behind the gathering, having arranged every detail of the trap the guests find themselves in.

First appears in chapter 2

The composed, professional butler engaged along with his wife to run the island house for its absent owner. Correct and discreet, he keeps the household functioning and attends to the guests' needs even as the atmosphere curdles, striving to maintain proper service under increasingly impossible strain.

First appears in chapter 2

The cook and housekeeper, wife of the butler Thomas Rogers, a pale, anxious, easily frightened woman hired with her husband to staff the island house. Timid and highly strung, she is unsettled from early on by the eerie mood of the place and by the unexplained arrangements of their unseen employer.