Death on the Nile

Death on the Nile

By Agatha Christie
Death on the Nile is a typical Agatha Christie novel. It is a murder mystery with all the ingredients of a thriller. The novel is set on a luxury steamer and most of the action of the novel happens on this steamer.
The plot of the novel revolves around the murder of Linnet Ridgeway , a young, rich, newly married lady who is on a honeymoon to Egypt along with her husband Simon Doyle.
The novel starts with the introduction of Linnet Ridgeway with a description of opulent lifestyle. Linnet has inherited a huge amount of wealth from the mother. She is young, vivacious girl, who is quite confident of herself. She is of the kind who go any lengths to get what they want. This is evident from the way she literary snatches her best friend Jacqueline de belleforte's boyfriend from her. This enrages Jacqueline so much that she swears to revenge her friend. She tries a novel way of harrasing Linnet, i.e, by following her wherever she goes. She irratates Linnet so much that Linnet is literally on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but her husband decides to fight back.
But the story takes another turn when Linnet is murdered one night. Herecule Poirot, the Belgian detection takes up the case along with Colonel Race. Everybody on the boat is under suspicion right from Andrew Penington to Ms Bowers the hospital nurse. The only person who is free of suspicion is Simon Doyle, who had been laid up during the time of the murder.
The plot of the novel is simple. The writer succeeds in creating an ambience which keeps the reader rivetted to the novel. More instresting than the unravelling of the mystery killer(which is actually not unexpected or surprising ) is the way in which the writer describes the process of interrogation. Infact it is the way in which the interrogation is carried that keeps the readers hooked till the very end of the novel.
In all an interesting piece of reading for all mystery lovers.