Death on the Nile by Agatha ChristieLove is a beautiful feeling. It makes the world appear bright and all things sweet. But many a times, love can turn out to be dangerous, especially if it involves a love triangle. Just as in this novel titled, “Death on the Nile” by Agatha Christie. This book reveals the story in which a romance triangle led to three brutal murders one after the other. The chain of events in the story goes like this.
A woman named Linnet Ridgeway is the heiress of a wealthy household of England. She is a lovely lady, who has everything – looks, money, fame, a business mind, and what not. This usually makes her the object of people’s envy, enemity and resentment. One day her best friend Jacqueline de Bellefort comes to visit her. Unlike Linnet, Jackie is not rich. Jackie is in love with a man named Simon Doyle. They are planning to get married. But before they do, Jackie visits her friend Linnet to ask her to give Simon a job.
However, when Linnet meets Simon, she instantly falls for him. Now, she is the girl who has never been denied anything in her life. She’s got everything she ever wanted. So, she marries Simon. This stirs up the clouds of resentment and bitterness in the heart of Jackie. So, when Linnet and Simon go on their honeymoon to Egypt, they find that Jackie follows them everywhere; she stalks them deliberately to disrupt their happy moments.
Their 7-day trip to Egypt is mainly inside a steamer called Karnak, set to tour along the Nile River from Shellal to Wadi Halfa and back. It is on the setting of this boat that the major plot of the story unfolds. While Linnet is worried at Jackie’s gruesome stalking, she reaches out to another passenger named Hercule Poirot, who is Agatha Christie’s signature French detective. Poirot is on a holiday. Linnet often speaks to Poirot saying that she is anxious as she is surrounded by enemies everywhere.
At Wadi Halfa, Poirot's friend Colonel Race also joins the steamer for the return trip. Race tells Poirot that he seeks a criminal among the passengers. In addition to the Doyle couple, Colonel Race and Poirot, the other passengers on the boat include Linnet Doyle’s maid Louise Bourget, an elderly woman Mrs. Allerton and her son Tim Allerton, a romance writer Mrs. Otterbourne and her daughter Rosaline Otterbourne, a shabby man Ferguson, an Italian archaeologist Richetti, a gentleman Fanthorp, Linnet’s American trustee Andrew Pennington, an arrogant middle-aged woman Marie Van Schuyler, with her nurse Mrs. Bowers and cousin Cornelia Robson, and a doctor named Dr. Bessner. In the beginning portion of the book, the author took the time to introduce all these characters in detail, before jumping into the murder mystery.
Mrs. Allerton is depicted to be a lovely elderly woman, but her son Tim Allerton is short-tempered. Mrs. Otterbourne is a romance writer, but due to her poor book sales, she has given into drinking heavily which hurts her daughter Rosaline. Rosaline is shown to be a sulky and anxious girl, who is living her life in torment and suffering due to her mother’s drinking habits. Cornelia is excited as she is travelling outside her home for the first time as her wealthy cousin Marie allowed her to accompany her.
Jackie, at first, is depicted to be utterly resentful and furious towards the honeymoon couple. She even confesses a remark about Linnet to Poirot, “I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.” She also reveals to him that she is carrying a pearl pistol with her. Until this time, everything is going all well and good. Even Linnet restores her happiness and charm, ignoring Jackie’s stalking.
Then one night, while everyone is seated in the dining saloon of the boat, a dramatic scene unfurls. When Linnet and most of the other passengers return to their cabins to sleep, only four persons are left in the saloon – Simon Doyle, Jackie, Cornelia and Fanthorp. Jackie starts heavily drinking and uttering curse words for Simon. All of a sudden, she slips out her pearl pistol from the pocket and shoots Simon in the leg. Then suddenly she starts to cry hysterically.
Simon asks Cornelia and Fanthorp to not worry about him and handle Jackie in case she attempts suicide due to guilt. Cornelia accompanies Jackie to her cabin and asks Mrs. Bowers to remain with her for the night. When Cornelia and Fanthorp return to the saloon, they find Simon, his leg bleeding with the shot of the bullet. They instantly shift him to Dr. Bessner’s cabin who says he would require an X-ray when they return back to Shellal. Till then he would remain in doctor’s inspection.
During all this, Jackie had dropped her pistol under her seat but when Fanthorp returned later in the saloon, he found the pistol missing.
The mystery strikes the watercraft when the next morning, Linnet is found shot dead in her cabin. Race tells Poirot that as a famed detective, it is his obligation to solve this murder mystery. Upon examining Linnet’s cabin, Poirot discovers nothing apart from the letter “J” scribbled in red on one of the walls, a bottle of nail polish filled with drops of red ink, and Linnet’s expensive pearl necklace missing. The first suspect, of course, points to Jackie who was so resentful of Linnet and who had a pistol too.
After some search, Jackie’s pistol is found from inside the Nile’s waters, dripping and wrapped in a pink-stained handkerchief and a velvet stole that belonged to Marie Van Schuyler, who reported it missing the previous day.
Together with Race, Poirot interviews all the passengers one by one. Upon confessions of Mrs. Bowers and Dr. Bessner, both Jackie and Simon are dismissed from being the murderers as they have alibis to support. Jackie didn’t left the cabin where she was with Mrs. Bowers throughout the night, whereas Simon couldn’t leave either due to his injured leg.
As for the missing pearl necklace of Linnet, Mrs. Bowers hands Poirot a necklace saying that her mistress Schuyler had taken it because she was a kleptomaniac. Kleptomania is form of psychological disorder in which someone is unable to resist the urge to steal things.
However, when Poirot examined the necklace, it turned out to be merely an imitation of the original pearl necklace. Where did the original pearls go, he wonders. As if to complicate the matters, the next day, another murder happens, that of Linnet’s maid, Louise Bourget. Poirot churns his brain, thinking through a lot of red herrings. One afternoon, while he and Race is sitting in Dr. Bessner’s cabin, talking to Simon, Mrs. Otterbourne appears and exclaims that she knows who is the murderer. But before she could utter the name, she is shot dead from a bullet that raced from outside the cabin.
Despite Poirot’s keen observation, he sees several albatrosses coming in his way of solving the mystery. Even Race finds his suspect criminal who turns out to be the Italian archaeologist Richetti, but he was not the man behind the three murders. Bit by bit, Poirot connects the dots.
Organizing the pieces forming in his brain, Poirot unfolds the entire mystery to Race. Linnet’s murder was not some abrupt or on-the-spot action, but a meticulously designed and well planned scheme. Jackie and Simon, who were still lovers had designed the entire scheme, because if Linnet died, all her wealth would go to Simon, and then Simon could marry his love Jackie.
In the dining saloon that night, Jackie had never shot Simon. But she only acted in a melodramatic manner to distract Cornelia and Fanthorp. Simon had faked his shot with smears of red ink. While the two of these were taking Jackie to her cabin, Simon slipped from the saloon, shot Linnet dead and deposited the bottle of red ink on Linnet’s washstand so it would not be found with him. Thereupon, he shot his own leg with a bullet, returned to the saloon, sat on a window seat, and threw the pistol overboard in the Nile’s waters. When Fanthorp and Cornelia returned with Dr. Bessner, they became witnesses to Simon’s innocence, while on the other hand, Jackie too had Mrs. Bowers as the witness of her innocence in the crime.
But Simon had bad luck. Linnet’s maid had seen him exit Linnet’s cabin at that time of the night. Although she didn’t reveal it to Poirot, she secretly blackmailed Simon for money. Jackie shot her dead. But Jackie too had poor luck, for Mrs. Otterbourne saw her entering Bourget’s cabin. So, Jackie also killed Mrs. Otterbourne.
Meanwhile, the pearls are found to be hidden inside rosary beads owned by Tim Allerton, who just wanted to steal the pearls but never intended to murder or harm anyone.
As the steamer arrives back in Shellal and the passengers disembark, Jacqueline shoots Simon and herself with another pistol so they may escape the legal punishment of gallows. Poirot later reveals that he had always known she had a second pistol, but had chosen to allow her to take her own life.
The greatest thrill in reading this mystery comes from watching Poirot resolving his brain’s disordered thoughts into an organized scenario that unveiled the game plan of the murderers. Another highlight of this mystery is its characters. Each character is relatable, detailed, and grotesque in its own unique way. The book is a brilliantly-crafted page-turner that would grab the reader’s interest till the end.
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