“Death on the Nile” by Agatha Christie

I picked up this one because of the movie, starring Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, and Kenneth Branagh, who plays Hercule Poirot. I get the impression that they’ll make a series of Poirot movies, which I’m glad for as I’ve enjoyed the two out so far. Just liked with Murder on the Orient Express, I was motivated to read the book after seeing Death on Nile. I wanted to experience the story in its original format and am glad to have enjoyed it that way too.

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GENRE

Mystery

SERIES

Hercule Poirot Mysteries

PUBBED

1937

Quick summary

As the title suggests, this story takes place in Egypt. Hercule Poirot is on vacation, on a cruise on the river Nile. When he boards the boat, he’s approached by Linnet Ridgeway, a wealthy young woman who’d recently married, about a job to help her and her husband.

Since marrying Simon, Linnet and her husband have been followed — stalked, really — by Simon’s ex, Jacqueline de Bellefort. Jackie, whose family had lost much of their wealth, was once Linnet’s friend. Back when they were friends, Jackie approached Linnet about hiring her fiancé, Simon. But when Linnet met Simon, she immediately fell in love with him and stole him away from Jackie. As a passive-aggressive sort of revenge, Jackie follows the couple wherever they go, and the guilt of what she’d done niggles at Linnet, leading her to approach Poirot when she sees him on the cruise to see if he could put a stop to it.

Poirot doesn’t, because he can’t, and further, the dude insists on being on vacation. But he does speak to Jackie about possibly losing herself in her revenge. The group and several continue on their cruise of the Nile and all seem well until a murder occurs, causing Poirot to reluctantly pause his vacation to solve it. (Goodreads)

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My thoughts

I actually enjoyed this more than I did Murder on the Orient Express. I wonder if it’s because I’d seen the movie first, because I kept imagining the characters as the actors from movie, and with the actors’ voices (especially the dude who play Poirot), which made reading this quite entertaining.

Like my reading experience with Murder on the Orient Express, it took a while for my interest in the story to develop, but I was much more interested in the plot and characters here than I was in that of the Orient Express. Jackie was intriguing to me from the moment I learned that she’s stalking the couple, which is odd of me since I typically do not like characters who are motivated by revenge or anger, but I was curious to see how the situation would play out for Jackie — despite having seen the movie.

And that’s another thing too — I was hooked on the plot despite having an idea of how things would play out. I just got caught up in how Poirot went about solving this mystery. I also liked the twists, which kept me guessing who the murderer(s) is (because I’d forgotten exactly who it was since watching the movie).

Despite how much I enjoyed the story, there are characters who come across as racist and xenophobic, which dampened my enjoyment some and annoyed me at the moments they occurred. So although I would recommend this story for its quick pace, the quirky Hercule Poirot, and the intriguing Jacqueline de Bellefort, plus the twists, I’d warn that some parts may annoy modern readers.

Overall: ★★★★☆

It’s a quick, light read, and I’ll certainly read more of the Poirot mysteries.

Buy | Borrow | Bypass