Death on the Nile is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie published in 1936 featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The action takes place in Egypt, mostly on the Nile River. It is one of Christie's longest works (albeit by a small margin) and is one of her most respected and popular novels. It was a great success on publication and was a favorite of Christie herself.
While dining at chic restaurant, Chez Ma Tante, Poirot overhears Jacqueline de Bellefort and Simon Doyle speaking to one another, and is concerned by the depth of her love for him. When next he meets her it is far away, in Egypt, and Doyle is married to the woman who was once her best friend: the wealthy and beautiful Linnet. Jacqueline seems determined to have her revenge on them both. Can Poirot persuade her to abandon a course of action that promises disaster to everyone?
Summary
Jacqueline follows Simon and Linnet on their honeymoon, appearing without warning wherever they visit. When Simon suggests taking a river cruise aboard the Karnak, he lays a false trail and they think they have escaped, but Jacqueline is there once again and now they are trapped with her. When a boulder is apparently aimed at Linnet's head on a visit ashore, Jacqueline is immediately suspected but proves to have been away from where the incident takes place. (This later proves to be a piece of misdirection. The boulder was dislodged, possibly by accident but more likely on purpose, by Linnet's American legal representative, Mr. Pennington, who is keen to conceal irregularities in his dealings on her behalf. Jim Fanthorp, working for Linnet's English legal representatives, has been sent incognito to thwart Pennington's plans.)
In a dramatic scene after Linnet has gone to bed, Jacqueline shoots Simon in the leg with a pistol that is kicked away under a sofa (and which later is discovered to have disappeared completely). Full of repentance, Jacqueline is taken to be sedated and watched over. Dr. Bessner is awoken and tends to Simon to his cabin where his wound is dressed. Both therefore appear to have perfect alibis when it is discovered that Linnet has been shot in the head. Why then, has a J apparently been drawn on the wall in order to incriminate Jacqueline, while her pistol has been thrown into the river?
Poirot's investigation concentrates on this pistol, which is recovered from the Nile wrapped in a shawl with a bloody handkerchief. A number of red herrings feature, such as a bottle thrown into the water at the same time, and the theft of a pearl necklace in which Tim Allerton is a key suspect. The appearance of Poirot's old friend, Colonel Race, who is seeking an enemy spy, means that many of the holidaymakers are soon implicated or under suspicion.
While visiting Dr. Bessner's cabin, and within earshot of Bessner and Simon (who is confined there while convalescing) Louise Bourget, Linnet's maid, says something to Poirot that is taken to imply that she could have seen the murderer. Soon afterwards, she is discovered dead, stabbed through the heart, in her cabin. There is the torn corner of a thousand-franc note in her hand; clearly she has attempted to blackmail the murderer with fatal consequences. Just as she seems about to reveal the name of Bourget's killer, Mrs. Otterbourne is shot through an open cabin door.
In a celebrated denouement, it is discovered that Simon and Jacqueline have worked together. The original shooting was staged, leaving a stray bullet lodged in the leg of a table. As soon as he was left alone he picked up the pistol, ran to Linnet's cabin and shot her, adding the incriminating J as an improvised (though unduly theatrical) detail. He then returned, shot himself in the leg using the shawl to muffle the second shot and, incapable of moving, threw the pistol through a window to dispose of it, in time to be discovered by Dr. Bessner with a real injury.
Jacqueline has been forced to commit the second and third murders in an attempt to cover their tracks. Louise Bourget dropped the hint to Poirot in front of Simon because this was the only way that she could begin to blackmail him while he was confined to Bessner's cabin. Simon subsequently informed Jacqueline of this hint, and she stabbed Louise Bourget with one of Dr. Bessner's surgical knives. When he realised that Mrs. Otterbourne was about to reveal Jacqueline's role in Louise's murder, Simon cried out in an apparently fevered state, warning Jacqueline to make the desperate shot through the open door.
All along, the marriage of Simon to Linnet has been cleverly plotted by Jacqueline in order to gain her money. It seems that they will only be united in court, but Poirot allows them to escape justice when she shoots first Simon and then herself with a second pistol. The spy turns out to be Mr. Richetti, whose coded letter was opened in error by Linnet early in the novel. The jewel thief is indeed Tim Allerton, but Poirot allows him to replace the pearl necklace voluntarily and avoid prosecution, largely so that he can marry Rosalie and provide one of the novel's minor happy endings. The other one is the marriage of Cornelia Robson to Dr. Bessner. Mr. Ferguson, a strident left-winger who proves be a member of the British aristocracy travelling in disguise, was also a suitor for Cornelia's hand, but is quite possibly as surprised as the reader that he has lost out to the rather unprepossessing Bessner.
Easton Press Agatha Christie books
Murder on the Orient Express
Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Mystery of the Blue Train
The ABC Murders
Death on the Nile
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Sleeping Murder
The Murder at the Vicarage
Curtain: Poirot's Last Case
Franklin Library Agatha Christie books
Mousetrap and Other Plays by Agatha Christie - Library of Mystery Masterpieces - 1987
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Source and additional information: Death on the Nile
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