Death on the Nile

Did You Know?

• The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.
• The book was first serialized in the US in The Saturday Evening Post in eight installments from 15 May to 3 July 1937 with illustrations by Henry Raleigh.

Synopsis

Hercule Poirot, vacationing in Aswan, is approached by wealthy heiress Linnet Doyle, who wants to hire him. Linnet recently married Simon Doyle, the ex-fiancé of her former friend Jacqueline de Bellefort. Jacqueline, bitterly jealous, has been stalking the couple. Poirot refuses the commission but tries to dissuade Jacqueline from evil.

Simon and Linnet secretly follow Poirot to escape Jacqueline, but she boards the steamer Karnak ahead of them. Other passengers include Linnet's maid Louise Bourget, trustee Andrew Pennington, romance novelist Salome Otterbourne and her daughter Rosalie, Tim Allerton and his mother, elderly American socialite Marie Van Schuyler, her cousin Cornelia Robson and nurse Miss Bowers, communist Mr Ferguson, Italian archaeologist Guido Richetti, solicitor Jim Fanthorp, and Austrian physician Dr Bessner.

At Abu Simbel, Linnet narrowly avoids being crushed by a falling boulder. At Wadi Halfa, Poirot's friend Colonel Race boards for the return voyage, mentioning a possible political agitator among the passengers. That night, Jacqueline, after drinking, shoots at Simon with a pistol; he collapses with a bloody leg. She kicks the gun away and is taken to her cabin.

Simon is treated by Dr Bessner. The pistol disappears. The next morning, Linnet is found dead with a bullet in her brain, and her pearls are missing. The pistol is recovered from the Nile, wrapped in a stolen velvet stole, with two shots fired.

Reception

Contemporary reviews of the book were primarily positive. The Times Literary Supplement concluded that Poirot uncovers a truth so unforeseen that a reviewer could not hint at it. The Scotsman review of 11 November 1937 stated that the author had constructed a neat plot wrapped in distracting circumstances. E. R. Punshon of The Guardian, in his review of 10 December 1937, noted that Christie's minor characters stand out as living personalities, a test she passes successfully. In a later review, Robert Barnard called the novel one of the top ten, despite an overcomplex solution, and noted comparatively little local colour but some good grotesques among the passengers. He observed that spies and agitators begin to invade Christie's detective stories at this period, as the slide toward war begins.

References to other works

In Part II, Chapter 11, Miss Van Schuyler mentions a common acquaintance, Mr. Rufus Van Aldin, known from The Mystery of the Blue Train. In Part II, Chapter 21, Poirot mentions finding a scarlet kimono in his luggage, referring to the plot in Murder on the Orient Express. When Poirot meets Colonel Race, Christie writes that they had been fellow-guests at a dinner party that ended in death for their host, referencing Cards on the Table. In Part II, Chapter 5, Poirot remarks that the most brilliant crime he remembers, committed on the spur of the moment, possibly refers to Cards on the Table, where the murder is committed only hours after the idea arises, and Poirot solves it by bluffing a confession after a second murder.

About to reveal the murderer, Poirot credits the experience recounted in Murder in Mesopotamia with developing his methods, comparing detection to clearing away extraneous matter in an archaeological excavation.

Adaptations

Agatha Christie adapted the novel into a stage play that opened at the Dundee Repertory Theatre on 17 January 1944 under the title Hidden Horizon. It opened in the West End on 19 March 1946 as Murder on the Nile and on Broadway on 19 September 1946 under the same title. A new adaptation by Ken Ludwig is scheduled to open at Arena Stage in November 2024. A live television version titled Murder on the Nile was presented on 12 July 1950 in the US as part of Kraft Television Theatre, starring Guy Spaull and Patricia Wheel.

An adaptation for the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot was made for the ninth series in 2004, starring David Suchet as Poirot, with guest stars including Emily Blunt, JJ Feild, and Emma Griffiths Malin, filmed in Egypt on the steamer PS Sudan. The novel was adapted into a 1978 feature film Death on the Nile starring Peter Ustinov as Poirot, with an all-star cast including Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, and Maggie Smith; the screenplay deleted several characters from the book.