Book Review: Death On The Nile
‘I’d Like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just pull the trigger!’
Oh, a murder most foul, the heat of the Egyptian sun and the hurricane of a love triangle. Safe to say, murder was bound to happen.
Hercule Poirot was holidaying in Egypt and as part of his itinerary he took a cruise along the Nile. His fellow guests are somewhat curious, from a snobbish aristocratic old lady to a crabby archaeologist and a washed-up writer with a drinking problem. I must say Agatha Christie does not disappoint with her cast of characters. But onto the main suspects: Linnet Doyle neé Ridgeway is on her honeymoon with the brand spanking new husband Simon Doyle. She has everything a girl of 20 could possibly want money, beauty, charm, youth and her best friend’s former fiancé. To say this creates friction is an understatement. Because her best friend Jacqueline de Bellefort is a force to be reconned with. She is hell bent on tormenting the new couple as much as possible, she is following them everywhere. Her object? To make Linnet Doyle’s life miserable and she is getting her way. Poirot can only advice Jaqueline to stop her endeavour before ‘evil enters her heart’ and return home. But the course that Jaqueline is on can only lead to disaster.
One fateful evening, Jacqueline accosts Simon, words are exchanged, a .22 calibre gun is pulled, and a single shot is fired. Simon falls into a chair, his leg badly wounded and Jaqueline falls into hysterics. The pressure cooker in this love triangle has erupted and disaster strikes. So while Simon is screaming in pain Jaqueline is rushed away to her cabin where a nurse tends to her and stays with her all night. A doctor Bessner tends to Simons wound, but nothing can be done until they reach a proper hospital. The drama of the evening seems over. Until morning when Linnet Doyle is found shot dead in her room, with a .22 calibre gun.
The beauty of a Hercule Poirot mystery, or indeed any mystery written by the Queen of Crime: Agatha Christie, is that nothing is ever as they seem. People are not who they say they are and the impossible is what happens. Forgive me for being vague, but I don’t not wish to ruin the ending for you. The murder of Linnet Doyle seems impossible, there are several red herrings along the way: the gun that wasn’t the gun that killed Linnet, blackmail, a communist agitator and a high-profile jewel thief all cloud and complicate those famous ‘little grey cells’. This murder most foul, is still one of the most iconic after ‘Murder on The Orient Express’. When you finally get to the ‘how’ it is ingenious, daring, calculating and cold-blooded. If you love a good who-dun-it like I do, then this is one worth reading. And read it again so you can see where all the clues, so expertly laid out and hidden, for you to find.