Death of Anthony Marston

The death of Anthony Marston marks the first violent rupture in the carefully orchestrated nightmare on Indian Island. A young man of immense physical vitality and callous indifference, Marston is struck down in an instant, his convulsed and purple corpse shattering the fragile veneer of civilized composure that had barely survived the gramophone accusation. His death transforms the gathering from a bizarre practical joke into a mortal crisis, establishing the pattern of murder that will claim every guest.

Identity and Background

Anthony James Marston is introduced as a creature of pure sensation and action, with very few thoughts passing through his head. He is a tall, well-proportioned young man with crisp hair, a tanned face, and intensely blue eyes, whose arrival on Indian Island is described as that of a "young God, a Hero God out of some Northern Saga." He drives a fantastically powerful Dalmain car, roaring through narrow streets and forcing old men and errand boys to jump for safety. His wealth is inherited, and he moves through life with an unthinking entitlement, expecting drinks to be plentiful and girls to be present. He has been lured to the island by a telegram from a friend, Badger Berkeley, whom he believed to be in Norway. The accusation leveled against him by the disembodied Voice is that he was guilty of the murder of John and Lucy Combes, two children he ran over near Cambridge. His reaction to this charge is telling: he reflects that it was "beastly bad luck"—for himself, primarily—and dismisses the deaths as a pure accident for which his license was endorsed for a year. He shows no remorse, only annoyance at the inconvenience.

The Fatal Evening

The death occurs on the first night, during the gathering in the drawing-room after dinner. The guests have just been shaken by the Voice's accusations, and a tense, suspicious atmosphere has settled over the room. Marston, who had earlier expressed a desire to stay and solve the mystery, calling it "positively thrilling," is the only one to dissent from the judge's proposal that they all leave the island the next morning. He picks up his drink and drinks it off at a gulp, too quickly. He chokes—his face contorts, turns purple, and he gasps for breath before sliding off his chair, the glass falling from his hand. Dr. Armstrong, who rushes to him, pronounces him dead, stating that he died of asphyxiation caused by one of the cyanides, probably potassium cyanide, which acts "pretty well instantaneously." The whiskey and soda themselves are found to be untampered with, leading to the initial conclusion that Marston must have put the poison in his own glass, a theory of suicide that everyone finds deeply unconvincing given his vibrant, life-affirming nature.

The Murderer's Method and Motive

The confession of Lawrence John Wargrave reveals the true mechanism of Marston's death. Wargrave, who had procured potassium cyanide for the purpose of destroying wasps, slipped it into Marston's almost empty glass during the tense period after the gramophone recital, when everyone's attention was elsewhere. Wargrave's selection of Marston as the first victim was deliberate. He considered Marston a type "born without that feeling of moral responsibility which most of us have," an "amoral pagan" whose complete callousness and inability to feel any responsibility for the lives he had taken made him, in Wargrave's judgment, "a type dangerous to the community and unfit to live." Marston's guilt, in Wargrave's scale, was the lightest, and he was therefore to pass out first, without suffering the prolonged mental strain and fear that the more cold-blooded offenders were to endure.

Consequences and Thematic Significance

Marston's death is the catalyst that transforms the gathering from a group of uneasy strangers into a collection of terrified suspects. It confirms that the gramophone accusation is not merely a cruel joke but a prelude to execution. The death also initiates the pattern of the nursery rhyme, as the guests later realize that one of the ten little china Indian boys on the dining table has disappeared, mirroring the first verse: "One choked his little self and then there were nine." Marston's vibrant, almost immortal presence makes his sudden, violent end all the more shocking, serving as a stark reminder of the murderer's absolute power and the fragility of life on the island. His death, the first of ten, sets in motion the inexorable, ritualistic slaughter that will follow, each death a grim fulfillment of the childish rhyme.