“You know, Linnet, I really do envy you. You’ve simply got everything. Here you are at twenty, your own mistress, with any amount of money, looks, superb health. You’ve even got brains! When are you twenty-one?” (location 96-101)
“Love can be a very frightening thing.” “That is why most great love stories are tragedies.” ( location 4002)
After being radio silent for almost a month now, I wanna take you a step further on the #readchristie2019 challenge in an exotic travel across the Nile and a new murder mystery, naturally.
We already know from the first pick of this challenge that whenever Hercule Poirot goes on a trip somewhere, murder follows. Frankly, I quite pity him sometimes, but at the same time, although he annoys me bitterly, I’m in awe at his skills. To see traits of this legend live on even nowadays in TV detective heroes, is absolutely extraordinary. Everybody throws superlatives at Christie’s feet, although her writing being borderline outdated nowadays. I think the most important legacy as a writer is to give on a set of narrative mechanisms that exist because of you and will be improved from your idea. So many authors have just one hit and then stop writing, ending up at best in a footnote of a Lit student someday. Such a waste of talent!
Now back at the book. This time Poirot escapes the confines of Europe and decides to take a trip to Egypt, a cruise on the Nile. But unlike other times, he’s not the spotlight character, quite the contrary.
So far, it’s the novel in which he couldn’t be further from central stage, which has its purpose further on.
Linnet Ridgeway, which also appears in the highlighted quote above, has everything working for her: fortune, good looks and youth, but not only that, she has ownership of a brand new house in the English countryside which she plans to redecorate. Money is no problem to her. Being the only heiress of her deceased millionaire father, she’s a nowadays trust fund baby. She has people taking care of her estate back in the States, has a notary that takes care of things on the other side of the pond and can afford so much as pearls worth 50k pounds. Being the prototype socialite, she has friends by the hundreds, but few people are close to her like Jacqueline de Bellefort. Not even Joanna Southwood, who follows her around everywhere and gushes at everything Linnet owns, mostly the pearls. Unlike her millionaire friend, Jacqueline had to deal with a rough lot from her childhood onward and being the stubborn French woman she is, she refuses her friend’s help.
That is until love comes knocking. When Jacqueline asks her friend that she hire Simon Doyle, the man of her dreams, she says yes. However little did she know that when Linnet will first see him love will hit again.
Remember this, reader. And the pearls, they’re important.
Let’s forward our story by a couple months. In America, Linnet’s trustees get a letter from her which informs them she has gotten married. The problem with that is 1, she’s not yet of age and 2, if she gets married, her husband gets dibs on the estate. They seem rather shady. Seeing Linnet intends to honeymoon in Egypt, one of them decides to intercept the young couple there and see how bad the situation really is.
Now, Egypt. On the Karnak, there is an assortment of people, which I’ll summarize here:
- the Doyle couple, Linnet’s maid Louise
- Jacqueline de Bellefort
- Pennington, Linnet’s trustee
- The Otterbournes (the mother’s a romance novelist and her daughter Rosalie)
- The Allertons (mother and Tim, the son, who’s friends with Joanna Southwood, to his mom’s dislike)
- An American socialite, Marie Van Schuyler; she has her nurse with her, Miss Bowers and her cousin Cornelia Robson. Her favorite past-time is pouting at commoners and tormenting her cousin for her plainness.
- Guido Richetti, a archeologist
- Mr Fanthorp, a solicitor
- Mr Ferguson, a communist.
- Dr Bessner
- Colonel Race (on a secret mission to get a murderer of his own, he’s friends with Hercule Poirot)
- Hercule Poirot
Although he has quite a reputation, Hercule is pretty much a background character for the better part of 50% of the action. Apart from his wardrobe, mustache and occasional fan asking him to tell work stories, he’s pretty much just like any other traveler on board of the Karnak steamer. Very much like Sleeping Murder or The mystery of the blue train, the case is cooking for the better part of half the story. For me it was a bit confusing because I had been reading this for two days and not seeing any motive hatching, then everything happened at once. Good warning for those who expect an instant plot, buckle up, patience sometimes can lead to a pleasurable experience.
In here, the plot thickens when Linnet, on account of his reputation, approaches Poirot to ask for help. Apparently Jacqueline de Bellefort, vengeful after Linnet stole her fiance, pops up everywhere the couple goes and makes sure she does everything to spite her. She closes in more and more on them, and Linnet can simply not see why she acts in such a shameful manner, much like any spoiled rich lady would do. She sees herself as above reproach, and proof appears several times that she’s far from it. Just the fact that she takes Poirot to be someone who would fix things for her just cause is proof enough:
“Monsieur Poirot, I’m afraid—I’m afraid of everything. I’ve never felt like this before. All these wild rocks and the awful grimness and starkness. Where are we going? What’s going to happen? I’m afraid, I tell you. Everyone hates me. I’ve never felt like that before. I’ve always been nice to people—I’ve done things for them—and they hate me—lots of people hate me. Except for Simon, I’m surrounded by enemies…It’s terrible to feel—that there are people who hate you….”
Death on the Nile (location 1473-1475)
And yet the detective pities her and approaches Jacqueline, but not as a fixer, but as a human being. He doesn’t detest Linnet, but while observing the couple, he sees something that’s not quite right peeking through. He sees Jacqueline’s hurting and tells her to not let “darkness” in her soul, which would happen if she got increasingly bitter. They will come to talk several times as the trip advances.
What is love here? The newlyweds has everyone gushing on board, except Hercule Poirot who notices things like an umbrella held too tightly, a forceful remark or a fake smile. There are several facets of love. First, the love between Simon Doyle and Jacqueline, observed by chance by Poirot in London, appears somewhat unreciprocated. Une qui aime et un qui se laisse aimer, once remarked Poirot. Jacqueline, is borderline crazy in love, while Simon is detached and cerebral. Then there’s the sudden attachment between Simon and Linnet, she who was nearly engaged to an earl before. Blitz-marriage that follows feels more like a hostile takeover. A challenge between the fortunate and the dignified. Then we see heartbreak and anger personified in scorned Jacqueline, with the fault being placed on her Latin blood. No wonder Poirot has sympathy for both the heroines in his own way and is quite endearing towards Jacqueline, seeing she’s young and too alive for her own good. Possessiveness is poisonous, after all, but he thinks his experience might help her see reason in the end.
“Ah, but people don’t run true to form in love affairs.”
-Death on the Nile (location 474-475)
Not everyone is a fan of Mr Poirot. Tim Allerton, huffs and puffs whenever his mother gushes about the detective’s endeavors. He’s haughty, distant and throughout the book I had a feeling he was hiding something significant, otherwise he wouldn’t be such a douche. Mr Ferguson was also a rather weird character from the very beginning as well. But he’s the only one that points out to Cornelia just what a light she shines over everyone. Bullied by her “cousin”, she’s trapped into thinking she’s plain because she never had a chance to travel and be something more than an accessory. Her curiosity and appetite for adventure shines through here and there throughout, to Mrs Van Schuyler’s disapproval, who considers her vain for living a little. Dr Bessner is also friendly towards her and explains her a great deal about whatever is happening on the boat when the action gets heated.
Along the way, the travelers make several stops. One is in Abu Simbel. While the archaeologist gushes a bit too much about the old relics and Mrs Van Schuyler is utterly unimpressed, a boulder nearly kills Linnet, to the astonishment of all present. Everyone suspects Jacqueline, but she is not on site at the time the incident happens. That’s when Poirot senses danger for the second time since his conversation with Linnet in Cairo. He encounters Colonel Race, on a mission of his own and they exchange information about a murderer on board of the steamer that he wants to capture.
On the first night of the return back everything comes together in a bloody mess. After dinner, guests leave the dining lounge and retire to their cabins, except for Jacqueline and Simon. In an angry outburst, she shoots Simon in the leg, then throws the pistol under a seat, visibly horrified by her act. She is taken back to her cabin, put under the surveillance of Mrs Bowers and Simon is taken into a cabin to be treated for his injuries by Doctor Bessner. The gun meanwhile disappears.
Next, Linnet is found dead, shot neatly behind the ear. On the wall, a massive J in blood. Her string of pearls is gone missing as well. While observing the murder scene, Poirot notices two bottles of nail polish that intrigues him. He interviews those who were close by the victims cabin, nobody heard any gunshot, but some confess to having heard a blop, as if something was dropped in the water. The gun is recovered by the crew, covered in a plain handkerchief and Mrs Van Schuyler’s shawl. Two people show they know more than they appear to: Louise, the maid, speaks cryptically, as if sending a message to someone and ends up stabbed dead. Then Mrs Otterbourne comes forward to Poirot saying she knows who killed the maid. Two seconds later, she’s shot dead from behind too. Mrs Van Schuyler swears she saw Rosalie Otterbourne on deck at the time of the murders throwing something overboard. Pennington seems a lot more shady then he seemed at first. Soon the murders become a whole lot trickier to solve and the occurrences for a while make absolutely no sense, but Poirot puts everything together in a manner that will leave you gasping “wow, smaaaart”.
As usual, I don’t want to spoil the good ending, but I wanna express what I loved about this installment.
Although it was confusing at first, I find that it was a neat move to put the murder in the second part of the book. From my previous paragraph, you can see many characters bring their own contribution to the case and not giving any space to each of them would have ended up like The Mystery of the Blue Train, a succession of characters coming and going and yet, no clarity being shed on whom the murderer is.
Plus, the book is a whole lot more psychological. From the scorned Jacqueline and Linnet’s behavior to kleptomania or alcoholism, Death on the Nile scores a lot of points. I couldn’t believe kleptos were considered to be neurotic at the time, and what was agreed upon in terms of human compulsions. In the book it shows both the humanity and hypocrisy of the character in question:
She can’t help it, you know, but she does—er—take things. Especially jewellery. That’s really why I’m always with her. It’s not her health at all; it’s this little idiosyncrasy. I keep on the alert, and fortunately there’s never been any trouble since I’ve been with her. It just means being watchful, you know. And she always hides the things she takes in the same place—rolled up in a pair of stockings—so that it makes it very simple. I look each morning. Of course I’m a light sleeper, and I always sleep next door to her, and with the communicating door open if it’s in a hotel, so that I usually hear. Then I go after her and persuade her to go back to bed. Of course it’s been rather more difficult on a boat. But she doesn’t usually do it at night. It’s more just picking up things that she sees left about. Of course, pearls have a great attraction for her always.”
Death on the Nile (location 2766-2769)
Speaking of compulsions, pearls were not only a temptation for kleptos, but also for petty thieves, doing it just for the thrill. There’s one passenger that does it almost shamelessly, true to his character till the end. It ties well with something that happened right at the very beginning.
Alcoholism is also a private affair, much like it is today. And sometimes it ruins someone’s life, be it a spouse, a child, a sibling etc. You simply cannot know what happens in anyone’s life and what makes them behave a certain way, with disregard to what’s considered polite. While Poirot thinks for a while Rosalie disposed of the gun by throwing it over the deck, she might have disposed of something else altogether. And with one conversation, our opinion about a character is changed completely, what a blast!
This book also marks the end of an era filled with riches, airs and contempt towards the middle class. Although she pouts at the commoners and tries to stay as far from them as she can, Mrs Van Schuyler cannot stop progress. She’s a fossil of a time past, in which corsets and stiff clothing were de rigueur even on a hot summer day in the desert and the custom will die with her. Marriage is more liberal a choice than she points it out to be. A lady can choose whomever she wants, not taking rank in society into consideration if she doesn’t want to. Linnet, a millionaire, married a commoner, Cornelia ends up wanting to marry an older man as well, because she chooses him, she’s not anyone’s play thing.
Women are strong and adventurous as well. Although she’s expected to blindly sign everything that is put before her, Linnet reads every legal document back to back before taking a final decision, unlike her husband, who’s a dumb ass about money things. Jacqueline travels by herself. Cornelia, although bullied for being so outwardly excited about seeing the world for the first time, moves from one character to the next and absorbs all the information she can learn, to better herself. That distinguishes her from the women of the past century, that were meant to hold their noses up high if they came from a certain family, although that came to the detriment of their education. In the past money and responsibilities were men’s past times, now women take the lead bit by bit. There are women who use this the wrong way, but as Poirot pointed out, the difference is if you let darkness into your heart or not. Nothing’s perfect in its infancy, for sure.
Overall, I’m glad I read another well put together Christie. Seriously, pick it up if you haven’t read it, it was thrilling and smart. What can come out of psychology, action and skill coming together, really?
Next, and to catch up with July, I want to read Hercule Poirot’s Christmas. Fitting for the hottest month of the year, isn’t it?
Thank you for your time spent reading my review and I cannot do anything else on this Saturday but wish you a wonderful day, with a wonderful book!
Now, if you liked this, below you’ll find a selection of all the Christies I’ve read so far. As the year passes, this list will hopefully get bigger and bigger:
January was good for a Poirot initiation
In February, don’t let your murders sleep
The second quarter of Agatha Christie novels starts in a lukewarm fashion
May your Christie short stories be INTENSE
DAYS OF A BOOK BLOGGER 
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