1. There
was a silence—a comfortable replete silence. Into that silence came
The Voice. Without warning, inhuman, penetrating . . . “Ladies and
gentlemen! Silence, please! . . . You are charged with the following
indictments.”
This quotation comes from the beginning
of Chapter III, when the guests have just finished their first meal
on Indian Island. Before this moment in the novel, Christie has
established a general mood of foreboding and has hinted that all
of her characters have guilty secrets. Now these secrets are brought
into the open by the recorded voice. We begin to realize that these
people have been brought to Indian Island for some sinister purpose
having to do with their past crimes. The way the voice presents
the list of crimes (“You are charged with the following indictments”)
serves as an important clue to the murderer’s identity. The guests
are charged with their murders in the formal style of a courtroom,
in the language that Judge Wargrave was accustomed to using during
his career.
