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Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot, #18)

Agatha Christie

Start date: August 2, 2019

Finish date: August 31, 2019

Discussion: Archive: Poirot Buddy Reads

Why we're reading this: Next in our series of Poirot buddy reads.
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What Members Thought

Mar 31, 2020 Kavita rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery, egypt, golden-age-mystery

This is one of the books I remember vividly, probably because they showed the film on TV so many times! But it's always fresh when I read it: intricately plotted, well-drawn characters, and a more serious feel to the mystery than the usual Christie. This might very well be one of the unsung favourites for many.

Death on the Nile is set in Egypt (should be obvious, eh?) but all characters are European or American (in other words, white). So don't get into it thinking you'll be reading a nice Egypt ...more

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Apr 08, 2019 Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore rated it really liked it

Shelves: hercule-poirot, mystery, series, agatha-christie, murder, egypt

Published in 1937, this is the seventeenth of the Hercule Poirot books. As the book opens, we ‘meet’ Linnet Ridgeway, an heiress who is refurbishing a country house she has just acquired—she is a girl who has it all, money, looks, brains. She claims she has no enemies but she has interfered in people’s lives which may have given rise to grudges. Her friend, Jacqueline de Bellefort, who has fallen on bad times but has so far refused to take any favours or charity comes to visit, seeking a job for Published in 1937, this is the seventeenth of the Hercule Poirot books. As the book opens, we ‘meet’ Linnet Ridgeway, an heiress who is refurbishing a country house she has just acquired—she is a girl who has it all, money, looks, brains. She claims she has no enemies but she has interfered in people’s lives which may have given rise to grudges. Her friend, Jacqueline de Bellefort, who has fallen on bad times but has so far refused to take any favours or charity comes to visit, seeking a job for her fiancé, Simon Doyle. Fast forward a little, and we see Linnet has ‘stolen’ Simon from Jackie and is now Mrs Doyle, on honeymoon with her husband in Egypt. We also meet a few other travellers who have come there on holiday, including Hercule Poirot, and a couple of people who we see have come from England and America to intercept Linnet, though we don’t know the precise reasons why. Jacqueline de Bellefort has had her heart-broken, and wants revenge, and follows the Doyles wherever they go, doing nothing, threatening nothing, simply being there. When the Doyles try to escape her by going on a Nile cruise, without making their plans known, she appears once again. What seems to be mere unpleasantness or annoyance takes a more serious turn when an attempt is made on Linnet’s life at Abu Simbel. While she escapes this, soon after, she is found dead with a bullet through her head (just as Jackie had once threatened) after an evening of much drama and confusion. But while Jackie had the strongest motive, she also seems to have a solid alibi; and there are also others on board who may have had reasons of their own to do away with Linnet. To add to the confusion, the travellers are joined on their return journey by Colonel Race who is in search of another murderer, travelling under an assumed identity. Are they the same or different? Does Poirot manage to catch his killer?

This one is certainly on my favourites list of Poirot books both because of the plot and the setting. The setting in more than one way is interesting—first of course, that it is in Egypt, and takes us down the Nile. The four great statues of Abu Simbel staring down at one, imposing, awe-inspiring, and also unsettling for some, where some of the action takes place. The other aspect of the setting is that it is more or less is like a country house setting with a bunch of people (though here they don’t all know each other) in a common space, one of them most certainly a murderer, and one who strikes repeatedly. Then of course, there is the plot itself. While the bare plot is that of a rich woman who was murdered, there are many smaller plot twists and turns—most characters, it seems, have things to hide, some innocuous and others not so much so, which might well throw anyone (not Poirot of course), on the wrong track or off track. It was great fun seeing him unveil all of the secrets, and unravel the threads to get to the truth or truths since they are more than one. There is a hint of romance as well of course, and while some of it was guessable, there are surprises there as well. All in all this was a thoroughly enjoyable read. While this was a revisit for me, I remembered the main plot well but not all of the many subplots, so I enjoyed it much more than I expected to. ...more

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Aug 25, 2020 Bev rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audionovel, british-mystery, mystery, vintage-mystery, mount-tbr-2020

Linnet Ridgeway is the girl who has everything--looks, brains, money. And now she's got her best friend's fiancé. Jaqueline de Bellefort, poor in her own circumstances but desperately in love, had asked her friend to give Simon Doyle a job. Because as she declares to Linnet, "I shall die if I can't marry him! I shall die! I shall die! I shall die...!" She swears Simon is just perfect for the job of land manager for Linnet's new estate and Linnet agrees to look him over. When she does, she decide Linnet Ridgeway is the girl who has everything--looks, brains, money. And now she's got her best friend's fiancé. Jaqueline de Bellefort, poor in her own circumstances but desperately in love, had asked her friend to give Simon Doyle a job. Because as she declares to Linnet, "I shall die if I can't marry him! I shall die! I shall die! I shall die...!" She swears Simon is just perfect for the job of land manager for Linnet's new estate and Linnet agrees to look him over. When she does, she decides that he is just perfect...for her.

Next thing we know Linnet and Simon are married. They've chosen Egypt as their honeymoon destination and plan to spend a blissful month visiting the pyramids, looking at the Sphinx, and sailing down the Nile. But life doesn't always turn out as planned...there's little bliss to be found when everywhere they go, up pops Jackie. Annoying as can be, but not actually abusive or threatening. What can be done?

Also vacationing in Egypt is Hercule Poirot. When Jackie shows up again at the Cataract Hotel and Linnet spies Poirot out on the terrace, the heiress tries to hire him to get rid of Jackie. But there's nothing he can do (again, the broken-hearted girl isn't actually hurting anyone by vacationing in the same places as the honeymooners)...and he will not be hired by the imperious young woman whom he suspects feels more guilty than she will admit. He does, however, talk with Jackie about letting her anger go because he senses she is embarking on a dangerous journey.

Do not open your heart to evil....Because--if you do--evil will come...Yes, very surely evil will come...It will enter in and make its home within you and after a while it will no longer be possible to drive it out.

But Jackie is determined to make the honeymoon a miserable as possible. And, even, it seems, has contemplated murder. She shows Poirot a little pearl-handled pistol that sometimes she would love to put up against Linnet's head and just press the trigger--but as long as the persecution keeps rattling them, she won't.

The four of them wind up on the Karnak, sailing down the Nile with an assortment of interesting passengers. There is Linnet's maid (Louise) and her American trustee ("Uncle" Andrew Pennington) who just "happened" to run into the happy couple in Cairo. There is also a sex-obsessed romance novelist (Salome Otterbourne) and her unhappy daughter Rosalie; Tim Allerton and his mother; a member of the American high society (Mrs. Van Schuyler) and her entourage consisting of poor relation/companion Cornelia and a nurse, Miss Bowers; an offensively outspoken communist (Mr. Ferguson); an Italian archaeologist Guido Richetti; a solicitor Jim Fanthorp; and a famous Austrian physician Dr. Bessner. And..Poirot's old friend Colonel Race

One evening, a hysterical scene takes place between Jackie and Simon with the result that she shoots him in the leg. And then when Linnet Doyle winds up dead--from a pistol shot--suspicion naturally focuses on Jackie. But Jackie couldn't have done it. She was attended by the nurse all night after being dosed with morphine for her hysterics. Poirot and Race work together to investigate and soon learn that just about every passenger aboard has a possible motive for wishing Linnet dead. But who took the opportunity of a dropped pistol to make the wish reality?

Well, I wound up having a regular floating Christie party. I listened to the audio novel version read by David Suchet. I read the hard copy novel. And I ended my excursion down the Nile with the 1978 film featuring Peter Ustinov as our Belgian sleuth. Definitely one of my top ten Christie excursions--I was thoroughly baffled on first reading and I love way she is able to make clues point in several directions with what seems to be little effort (though I know she carefully plotted these things out) and nothing & nobody is ever quite what they seem.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. ...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Amy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-as-an-audiobook

I listened to this as an audiobook and thought the narrator did a good job with all but one voice. That one voice was almost unbearable! The story was great and while I had a suspicion on who the murderer was I was still hooked until the end. Great story.

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