::READERS REVIEWS::

Not Free SF Reader - Death Comes At the End is something slightly different for Christie. This is a mystery set in ancient Egypt. No shambling mummies out to get people, unfortunately.

However, Imhotep does feature, and his family. When people around them start dying, they have to do some Egyptian sleuthing and work out what is going on before they are candidates for the after-burial rites themselves.


3.5 out of 5

WILL SOMEONE LET THE WOMAN SPEAK? - This is not the book that Agatha Christie wrote. What "improvements" have been made for the Bantam edition? There were already major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins and Dodd Mead editions of this novel. There are further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. There are further additions still in the Signet, Berkley, and Black Dog & Leventhal editions. For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.

It grows on you! - I began this book, but found it slow going. I got as far as the first murder and was going to stop reading. Then I looked up the reviews here and saw the "fun" had just begun. Once it got going it was hard to put down.

It was so different than the usual setting and cast of characters. I did not guess the bad guy at all, but found the end satisfying.

Who Shot (offed) JR (lots of people)? - I thought I had read all the Agatha Christie mysteries many years ago, but DEATH COMES AS THE END seemed unfamiliar and I picked it up. It is an anomaly for Christie, a historical setting and characters, though as she says in an author's note, the plot could be set elsewhere in time and place but she was inspired by artifacts turned up in an Egyptian archeological dig in the early 1920's. In fact, I could easily see the story played out with similar characters in an English baronial manor house in the early 20th century. Or on a Texas ranch in a 1980's American television show.

The plot is vintage Christie, with twists, turns and red herrings galore. It is mostly logical. It takes place in the household of an autocratic ancient Egyptian ka-priest, whose sons vie for power in the family's vast agricultural and commercial holdings. The delicate balance of family interrelationships is knocked off kilter when the widowed patriarch brings home a vixenish concubine, apparently an acceptable practice back when. The female characters range from witchy to ingénue to matriarchal to unctuous servant. If they seem stereotypical some at least have a little psychological resonance and there are faint whiffs of English literary icons ranging from Lady MacBeth and Iago to Uriah Heep. It is refreshing to see the ingénue itch for self possession and independence.

A word about reading Christie again after at least 20 years: I was surprised at how "styleless" her writing style is. Fluent and efficient, yes. But no idiom to distinguish the narrative voice from American English. Perhaps I've been watching too many PBS versions of her work that I expected differently.

Who done it? - Death Comes As The End was an extremely well told story. It was so easy to get lost in the imagery and events that were taking place. The novel was fast paced and got straight to the point from the very beginning. I especially love the language, it's somewhat poetic. The depth of understanding of human relationships that is conveyed in the simple speech patterns of Christie's characters is almost incomprehensible. I thought I knew who the killer was, but truly I did not solve this mystery until the very end. I first read this book ten or more years ago when I was a teenager. I enjoyed Death Comes As The End today just as much, if not more than the first time I read it. I am not by any standards an avid mystery reader. I first selected this book because I was curious about Agatha Christie as an author and my interest was piqued at the possibility of reading about Egyptian characters. That said, this book is one that can be enjoyed by many readers, even quote, non-mystery readers. I could read this book again and again.

Reading with Tequila - Death Comes As the End is not your average Agatha Christie novel. It isn't a detective or investigative novel and there isn't more than the slightly bit of sleuthing. It's more the type of mystery were you sit back and watch the story unfold with all the pieces of the puzzle readily available for you alone to discover and and decipher. Each person was suspected at least once and still found myself hugely surprised by the outcome. I was concerned that a Christie novel void of familiar characters set in ancient Egypt would be dry. I found that the characters, despite their somewhat hard to remember names, were very interesting. The Egyptian aspect of this book was lightly done, but for some minor customs it could have been set anywhere at any time. Dead Comes As the End was an excellent mystery.