DEATH ON THE NILE
UK publication: 1937 (Collins)
US publication: 1938 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Hercule Poirot
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments:One of Christie's finest, set on the steamer
Karnak, cruising the Nile. (The stage is set in a first chapter which
outlines how all of the characters came to be in Egypt.) The beautiful
and rich Linnet Ridgeway has lured handsome Simon Doyle away from her
best friend Jacqueline and married him; Jacqueline retaliates by following
the couple on their entire honeymoon as a silent presence. During the
cruise, Linnet is killed; other passengers suspected are a grand American
lady, a novelist (Mrs. Otterbourne) and her daughter, an upperclass Englishwoman
and her son, two solicitors, an Italian archaeologist, and a young radical.
The Secret Service agent Colonel Race is also a passenger, but unlike
Poirot (who is on holiday) he is shadowing a murderer. Christie adapted
the story herself into a play in 1945, as "Murder on the Nile",
and a star-studded film (including David Niven, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury,
Bette Davis, and Peter Ustinov as Poirot) was made under the original
title in 1977.
Courtesey of: http://stout.physics.ucla.edu/%7eyoder/mystery/christie.html
::READERS REVIEWS::
"This
is my first and so far only Agatha Christie book, but if the rest are
like this, I can well understand why she is the best-selling author of
all-time.
The first several chapters briefly introduce our cast of characters, who they are, who they work for, and what their feelings might be (i.e. their motives) regarding our central characters (i.e. the ones around whom a crime might be committed.) These introductions catch the reader quickly, as if he is among the passengers on the cruise. The profiles are diversified, realistic and tense.
From these profiles, Christie weaves a plot through various interviews between the detective, witnesses, possible suspects, and between other bystanders, etc.
The plot is intricate and requires careful reading, and even a guess to determine who the murderer might be.Here, Christie allows the suspense to come down to the wire, and in the last few chapters, all incidents are tidied up in a realistic and satisfactory fashion."
"....READ
THIS BOOK! I've read it about ten times so far, and I never get tired
of it. I truely believe that it is Christie's best - some of her novels
tend to swagger off a little, and lose interest. Not this one. The main
characters Jackie, Simon, and Linnet are extremely well developed, and
the seemingly impossible situation of the murder kept me guessing until
the end (god that sounds cliched...:)) My only minor qualm is that it
seems like Christie tried to cram too many criminals on one boat - a jewelry
thief, a mob hitman, a kleptomaniac, a murderer, etc. But, that's too
minor to dock off a star. Incidentally, it has also been made into a very
good movie with with Peter Ustinov (?) as Poirot and Mia Farrow as Jackie.
"
"In
this novel, one of Christie's best, she took a love story and made it
into a murder mystery. A honeymoon cruise where the beautiful bride is
murdered is just the beginning of a story filled with suspects, red herrings,
and subplots.
Jacqueline de Bellefort is a poor orphan whose best friend at school is the beautiful and wealthy Linnet Ridgeway. When Jacqueline becomes engaged to Simon Doyle, she convinces her friend Linnet to hire him as her estate agent. Only tragedy can ensue when Linnet and Simon fall madly in love and Simon marries Linnet, not Jacqueline. The jilted Jacqueline shows up at every stop on Linnet and Simon's honeymoon, but on the last leg of the trip, a cruise down the Nile, Linnet's patience has worn thin.
Added to this intriguing scenario are a cast of interesting cruisemates including Hercule Poirot who is taking a well-deserved holiday and Colonel Race who has appeared in earlier Christie works. Also on board are an anxious American lawyer with questionable financial dealings, a British solicitor, a mother traveling with her grown daughter, and another mother traveling with her grown son. These and others make this sailing of the Karnak one you don't want to miss. "
The
charactes are all three-dimensional. Even the smallest characters have
a personality and emotions. The mystery is baffling, and quite challenging
for those readers who try very hard to figure out the mystery. The addition
of Colonel Johnny Race is a great one, and he's a good temporary replacement
for Captain Hastings.
The solution will blow you away. It's absolutely wonderful. A good mystery should leave you wide-eyed and thinking about the solution for a good while after reading it, and that's exactly what this one does. The solution is perfectly satisfying, unlike some other Agatha Christies (Cards On The Table, Sparkling Cyanide).
This is one of the longer Agatha Christies, at 307 pages, but it's well-worth your time. I absolutely reccomend Death on the Nile to anyone.
::YOUR OPINION::
