The Mysterious Hand of (In)Justice: the Thin Line between Crime and Punishment in the Novel “And There Were None” by Agatha Christie

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to the exploration o f the productive relationships
between philosophy, law and literature, in the spirit o f the contemporary “Law and
Literature " movement. More specifically, it analyses the key leitmotifs o f the famous
mystery novel “And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie, revealing their potential to illustrate the complexity and the deep existential relevance of some o f the most
important questions tackled by the philosophy o f law as a discipline. The specific interconnectedness o f the ideas o f justice, guilt, crime, revenge and punishment, reflected by
the complicated structure o f the plot o f Christie's novel, is viewed as an opportunity' to
test and further refine our fundamental intuitions about the principles o f justice and
their practical application.