Publication Date: November 1st 1937
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 9780553261387
Genre: Mystery
Strong Point: The story as well as the characters are superb.
Weak Point: Any!
Books on Tour Rating: 
(5/5)
Goodreads Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4.12/5)
“Love is not everything, Mademoiselle. (…) It is only when we are young that we think it is.”
“DEATH ON THE NILE”
Agatha Christie is known as the “Queen of Mystery” and “Queen of Crime” and she absolutely deserves those titles.
Her style is very elegant and the mixture of the setting, the superb character building and the bits of humour dropped here and there make the experience of reading her books a total delight.
I have read only couple of her books but I have enjoyed them both. This one was not an exception so let’s talk about it.
THE STORY
Agatha Christie is an expert in building the atmosphere of her books. In “Death on the Nile” she puts together a big group of people on a boat.
However, in the first part of the story, the reader can learn a bit about some of the characters.
The main character of this story is, of course, Hercule Poirot who is now retired but unhappy.
We also find Linnet Ridgeway, a 20 years old woman who has inherited an immense fortune from her dead parents. She is supposed to marry Charles Windlesham. He has already proposed to her but she has rejected him.
On the other hand, we get to know Linnet’s oldest friend, Jacqueline de Bellefort, whose parents had lost all their money. She is engaged with a poor man called Simon Doyle.
In addition, we learn about Tim Allerton and his mother, Mrs. Allerton. He has a relationship with his second cousin and Linnet’s friend Joanna Southwood. This makes Mrs. Allerton very unhappy and jealous.
Unexpectedly, Linnet has definitely turned down Windlesham and has engaged with Simon.
These characters and others board a ship which will take them to Egypt where one of them will die. Hercule Poirot will make everything possible to find the culprit.
WHODUNIT
“Death on the Nile” is a classical detective story like the ones from Sherlock Holmes. It has all the typical clichés of the genre and yet, it is very enjoyable.
Christie’s style is very elegant and her narrative is so well-thought that it makes the story very interesting. You really want to know who the killer is and the motives for the murder. Furthermore, the characters are remarkably composed.
I must say that the author did really fool me. I didn’t know until the end who did it, because the amount of red herrings is quite high!
FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT “DEATH ON THE NILE”
Perhaps the great thing about this book is that we have a quite long introduction of all the characters. Christie tells us in depth about all the possible killers (a long list of them in this book!), their life circumstances, and their relationships to one another. This makes “Death on the Nile” a very fascinating book.
In addition to it, the setting, a boat, as well as the country of Egypt (a character in itself), make the atmosphere quite claustrophobic, which adds some more mystery to the story.
The resolution of the murder is quite simple but logical which makes the whole story very plausible.
To sum up, a very solid detective story worth a reading. Totally recommended!
