Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Short Summary
Even the most dogged detectives deserve to rest and retire, but such is not the fate awaiting Hercule Poirot, on-duty until his last heartbeat. In Death on the Nile, one of Agatha Christie‘s most celebrated novels, we follow the now-retired detective as he gets pulled back into the thick of a murder while vacationing in Egypt and sailing down the Nile river. What’s worse, the murderer has no intention of stopping, and as the bodies keep piling up, so does the pressure on Poirot to solve the impossible scenario before him.
Table of contents
Agatha Christie Harasses Poirot on his Retirement
Even the greatest and most useful servitors to mankind at large, unfortunately, get older and increasingly fatigued as they age, yearning for a calm and peaceful retirement, which they are usually granted. However, woe be to fictional creations of relentless authors; their retirement is often a prelude to a new phase in their never-ending career. In Death on the Nile, Hercule Poirot is attempting to enjoy himself and see the world now that he has earned it, but of course, Agatha Christie has other plans for him.
If the title of the book sounds familiar to you, it’s because it is without a doubt one of Christie’s most famous novels, having been adapted to television and the silver screen on multiple occasions. As always when it comes to Poirot, if you’re going to watch any version of it (after reading the book, I would hope), I most highly recommend the one with David Suchet. His ability to bring the Belgian detective to life is simply timeless.
In any case, the story takes place in Egypt, where Poirot is trying to enjoy his retirement with a bit of sight-seeing and exploration. He joins a small group of tourists on a boat, the Karnak, meant to sail down the Nile for a few days while making continuous stops at curious locations. Naturally, the people keeping him company on this boat are nothing if not remarkable and abnormal in their own strange ways.
Most importantly, Poirot bears witness to a painful sort of love triangle. On one hand, there is the twenty-year-old Linnet Doyle, recently married to Simon, and one of the richest women in the world to boot. Stalking them around wherever they go is Jacqueline de Bellefort, Simon’s former fiancee and Linnet’s former best friend. The betrayal stings her deep, and revenge is the only thing on her mind.
Predictably enough, things come to a boil, and Jacqueline ends up shooting Simon in the leg before numerous witnesses. While she is taken back to her cabin and administered a strong dose of morphine, Simon is tended to by the doctor. On the next morning, Linnet Doyle is found murdered, with a bullet hole in her temple. From the very beginning, the case seems, in a certain sense, impossible to Poirot, the arrangement of events incongruous and false, but that only lights the fire of his investigative instincts ever stronger. Whatever the truth is, he will stop at nothing to find it.
The Best of British High Society in Death on the Nile
Agatha Christie has long been known as the Queen of Murder Mysteries, and even though some of the stories she wrote might feel a little naive by today’s standards, most of them, I would argue, stand the test of time better than most modern works will. There are some marked differences between the way she approached murder mysteries and what most authors do today, and I think perhaps one of the more important ones is the fact she doesn’t rush to the murder.
You’ll see many modern mystery novels open with the crime in question, plunging the reader straight into the thick of things, afraid to lose their attention of some blood isn’t spilled soon enough. While it certainly might make for a slightly more thrilling experience, it robs us of the ability to know the characters in play before the crime takes place.
In Death on the Nile, as is the case for many of her other novels, Agatha Christie takes her time building up to the murder, setting the stage and allowing us to get acquainted with all the main characters. While I’m not a huge expert on the matter, it does feel to me as if her characters, each with their own slightly exaggerated idiosyncrasies, are used to explore, criticize and poke fun at some elements of British society.
In this novel, she looks quite intently on the issue of classism, how it created abstract divisions between people, families and even society at large. She examines how the rich see themselves, and on many occasions, mocks the air of superiority they tend to adopt while putting on display the shortcomings they try so hard to keep secret.
What’s more, she manages to do all this without ever sacrificing qualities which make her characters believable, easy to imagine and understand. Despite the exaggerations around them, they nevertheless feel like real people you might have met back in the day, to the point where we can even relate to some of their motives (few on the boat are guilty of nothing), even if we do not approve of them.
The Impossible Crime
When an author writes dozens upon dozens of murder mysteries and crime novels, it stands to reason that some stories will end up being weaker or stronger than others, and Agatha Christie is no exception to the rule. However, I would argue that even her weaker works are still far above average, and there is a reason why Death on the Nile stands out in her long and celebrated bibliography: the puzzle itself is by far one of the best she has managed to come up with.
From a writer’s perspective, writing a good mystery requires one primary element above all: baffling the reader in a logical way. The author needs to present a situation which appears utterly hopeless and impossible to untangle, a sequence of events which seem to indicate that none of the current cast are to blame. This is precisely the kind of crime Poirot is faced with, going as far as referring to it as an impossible task.
It seems as if all the people on the boat have a perfect alibi for the time frame during which the murder occurred, all accounted for by other witnesses, especially Jacqueline de Bellefort, seemingly the only one with a motive to carry out the crime. Nevertheless, bit by bit, step by step, taking his time to interrogate each of the passengers one after the other, Poirot inches closer and closer to the solution, while we ourselves are given the subtle clues necessary to put it all together.
As is always the case, watching Poirot apply his methods to resolving the crime is nothing short of fascinating and endearing, his cunning intellect and boundless politeness carrying him through the ordeal from start to finish. His ability to pick up on the smallest clues and extrapolate the truth from them was and remains unmatched in my opinion. Additionally, I must say his lack of brashness and abhorrence of violence are a breath of fresh air in today’s murder mystery market.
While some older murder mysteries feel naive today, Death on the Nile is not one of them. I believe this is really one of those enigmas which can and still stand the test of time for many years to come, surprising generations upon generations of new readers with a puzzle only Poirot could solve. While its social commentary may be a little outdated, it remains an interesting window to a time gone by not so long ago.
| PAGES | PUBLISHER | PUB. DATE | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| 352 | William Morrow | Sept. 22 2020 | 978-0063015708 |
The Final Verdict
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie certainly deserves to be one of her most celebrated works, presenting a timeless and fiendishly clever murder mystery in an intriguing setting, featuring one of literary history’s most notable and endearing detectives. It’s populated by a cast of memorable characters, and even offers some interesting social commentary on a bygone era.
Whether you’re a fan of Agatha Christie or a first-time reader, I believe anyone who enjoys murder mysteries even a tiny bit ought to read this novel: it truly is the kind of classic destined to live on forever… or at least as long as humanity does.
Agatha Christie
(September 15th 1890 – January 12th 1976)
