History Headscratchers / AndThenThereWereNone

** Heck, this troper was surprised he didn't simply shoot Blore, Armstrong ''and'' Vera as soon as he got his gun back. He's the one who'd abandoned a whole group of men to starve to death, after all, and had originally come to the island expecting he might have to use the weapon.

* This is a major plothole in the 1945 film that has always bothered this troper: In the book, the judge went to great lengths to dig up on his victims' dirty history. In the movie, it turns out that one of his victims (Vera Claythorne) is innocent (two, if you want to count Charles Morley). How could he ''not'' find out Vera was innocent? In the book, he learned about what she had done ''directly'' through the person who would have been affected by her crime the most. In the movie, her crime is changed from killing a little boy to supposedly murdering her sister's fiancee. Who would he have had to ask in the first place? The dead fiancee's mother?

** Wargrave excused himself from the group a little while before Vera does, saying he's going to go to his room and read. There's also a shot of him and Armstrong sharing a look as he goes. This troper took that to be the point at which he'd always planned to "die" and he'd probably told Armstrong as much (eg "I'm going to find some excuse to go to my room and set this up. You just need to pronounce me dead when you all discover me"). Sooner or later even without the thing with Vera the rest of them would have realised Wargrave was missing, maybe Armstrong was even given an amount of time and if no one had mentioned the judge by then, then he'd be the one to do it.

*** And what if Narracott brings along a friend? What if someone sees him in Narracott's boat? What if Isaac Morris has a paper trail linking him to the island? What if Lombard doesn't know how to pilot the boat? Where's the safest and nearest place for him to dock the boat without risking being seen by anyone, and what if he runs out of fuel before he gets there? There's a lot of possible variables there, any one of which could, with a bit of bad luck, see him end up at the gallows. Lombard already ''knows'' he's innocent of this crime, and if he continues not killing people unnecessarily, he continues to be innocent and therefore legally untouchable. Whereas this plan would require him to actually ''commit'' at least four murders and thus risk the possibility of being caught for them. Whereas if he exposes the murderer with sufficient proof to convict him or her (including, ideally, a witness), then he's in the clear. In short, Lombard potentially has less to lose and more to gain by simply finding the actual murderer than he does by murdering every other occupant of the island, plus the guy who owns the boat, in a fit of paranoia. Lombard's ruthless, but that doesn't mean he's a homicidal psycho who believes MurderIsTheBestSolution to every problem and possesses no impulse control whatsoever.

*** Whether 1930s Britain was that different from our time in this regard could be a matter of debate, but it would actually be pointless: these diaries were obviously kept for private use only, thus eliminating any possible social pressure for discreetness.

*** I wouldn't say that Wargrave is "quite lucky" in that regard though. Unless Armstrong is into a rather peculiar mindset of recording everything to help hypothetical future investigators to sort the entire thing out - and there's no evidence that he is - he has little to gain but possibly much to lose by writing down his arrangement with Wargrave in the event it is read - under whatever circumstances - by Lombard, Blore ot Vera, which would give away that he's in cahoots with Wargrave. By contrast, it's much more plausible that he would have recorded Judge's ''betrayal'' if he had had a chance to figure it out, but he probably wouldn't have lived long enough to write it down anyway.

*** you are forgetting the biggest point - sea temperature. In Devon and cornwall, temperature can be as low as 5 degrees celsius, but the average for winter and spring is about 10 degrees celsius. this is actually extremely cold and your muscles will freeze up soon. every year people die in hot weather going swimming in quarries because they do not realise how cold the water is. Sure, there are swimming clubs who swim in cold water...but they don't swim a mile out from land where they can drown. And they don't swim for long periods either.

** I ''think'' he interpreted Vera's question as a weird little quiz, as if very is saying "Ok, I'm murderer. But are you clever enough to figure out how I did it?". Then he shrugs, because the answer doesn't really matter at this point, and guesses that it was a conjuring trick. Vera, of course, meant her question literally and takes his response as a confession.

** If you recalled how hysterical she got once (a scene where Lombard had to slap her), if you remembered how ''unnaturally overjoyed'' she became after killing Lombard... you wouldn't be that surprised by the finale.

*** I wouldn't say that Wargrave is "quite lucky" in that regard though. Unless Armstrong is into a rather peculiar mindset of recording everything to help hypothetical future investigators to sort the entire thing out - and there's no evidence that he is - he has nothing to gain by writing down his arrangement with Wargrave which could be read - under whatever circumstances - by Lombard, Blore and thus give the whole thing away. By contrast, it's much more plausible that he would have recorded Judge's ''betrayal'' if he had had a chance to figure it out, but he probably wouldn't have lived long enough to write it down anyway.

*** There is actually no reason for the police to mention how detailed the diaries were unless those details actually led them somewhere. It's that world-famous Dame Agatha's little detail that doesn't get mentioned not because it isn't there or isn't remembered but because nobody can see a deeper meaning behind. And given the above-quoted passage about Vera's mood at the time of the writing of the diary, one could argue that, on the contrary, she might have been trying to calm herself down by recalling everything that happened asmeticuolusly as possible, as if looking at the whole thing from a distance, as if she were an uninvolved observer.

*** Actually, it might not be quite true that he had only one opportunity to shoot himself. Provided there is a sufficient number of bullets (and Wargrave could easily have hidden additional ammo together with the revolver itself) and that some shot wouldn't incapacitate him without actually killing, he might have a few attempts at it. To be sure, there will be some more bulletholes, but it would hardly contradict the diaries: the then alive cannot have known how many times Wargrave was "supposed" to be shot because they couldn't hear even any specific shots at the time, for obvious reasons; and it would look perfectly plausible that in the evening and with candlelight alone they just couldn't notice any additional bullets shot.

*** Actually, it might not be quite true that he had only one opportunity to shoot himself. Provided there is a sufficient number of bullets (and Wargrave could easily have hidden additional ammo together with the revolver itself) and that some shot wouldn't incapacitate him without actually killing, he might have a few attempts at it. To be sure, there will be some more bulletholes, but it would hardly contradict the diaries: the then alive cannot have known how many times Wargrave was "supposed" to be shot because they couldn't hear even a single shot at the time, for obvious reasons; and it would look perfectly plausible that in the evening and with candlelight alone they just didn't notice any additional bulletholes.

** Considering that they're highly paranoid, it's equally likely that they at some point assume that the other murdered Armstrong and threw his body into the ocean in order to take the heat off themselves, thus leading to the same result. In any case, considering how highly orchestrated everything about these events are and considering that it's repeatedly stated that the island is small with few places to hide, the killer almost certainly killed Armstrong and left him in such a way that his body would eventually be found in the way it was. The whole point is that he's not someone who leaves things to chance.

** They were not getting payed to gust live in the house. They were payed to prepare it for the guests. Unused houses tend to deteriorate, so someone has to freshen it up, dust the dust, do some repair work, etc. It's a huge house, and they are just two servants. They would've been very busy.

*** The diaries serve as guard rails of sorts for Wargrave since he can’t know for certain who is keeping them or where they might be. (He’s quite lucky that Armstrong wasn’t keeping one in his breast pocket outlining Wargrave’s double cross.) Wargrave’s body has to be found laid out on his bed to agree with any facts that might have been recorded. That being said, I find it totally believable that a 1920’s revolver can fire a round that does not create an exit wound and would be instantly fatal, thus leaving little blood. After all, the same gun shot Lombard ‘through the heart’ but there’s no mention of an exit wound and it’s likely easier to penetrate a rib cage than a skull.

** Also the ones he abandoned were "natives" who he probably thought were subhuman or at least inferior, being written in the 1930's. By his way of thinking abandoning a bunch of "natives" is a far cry from killing Whites.

** Exactly. In the ''Series/{{Monk}} episode "[[Recap/MonkS4E2MrMonkGoesHomeAgain Mr. Monk Goes Home Again]]", the killer shoots an armored car guard hoping that this would keep the police from discovering he'd been poisoned before being shot. The police might not have thought to look for another cause of death in light of the "obvious" one.