Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
The tranquility of a cruise along the Nile was shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway had been shot through the head. She was young, stylish, and beautiful. A girl who had everything… until she lost her life.
Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: “I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.” Yet in this exotic setting nothing is ever quite what it seems.
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My first ever Christie novel was a huge success! Now I understand why she is the most widely published author of all time and why people have loved her books from generation to generation. She is the Queen of mystery and suspense. I thought it would be easy to guess the end since most mysteries today use tropes that are very popular from Christie’s novels but I kept getting turned around. There’s also something to be said about writing that can translate very well to modern-day. Sometimes novels from much earlier decades are harder to read as fast as there are many terms you don’t understand or the writing style and dialogue are very different as to what we are used to today but I didn’t feel that way while reading this novel. I’m pretty happy with how much I enjoyed it and I can’t wait to read more of her work!
This novel is quite a bit further down in the Hercule Poirot storyline but it’s one with a title that has always intrigued me so I decided this would be my first pick. I’ve seen a lot of her novels turned movies so figured this might have the same type of plot line. And though it is a similar plot to Murder on the Orient Express, a group of not-quite-strangers travelling together and trapped on their mode of transportation while a murder investigation, it was refreshingly unique in the way it played out.
I think the reason why these stories keep us on the edge of our seats, flipping pages till we reach the end, and gasping in shock at our discoveries, is because the foreshadowing is so subtle. There are big obvious clues obscured by red herrings and small things that we spend too much time focusing on instead of the true direction we should be heading. I went over chapters over and over trying to see how she made me miss the things I missed when in the end they seemed so glaringly obvious. I couldn’t figure it out.
One of my absolute favourite things about this book specifically were the characters. Not a single character was who I expected and even going in knowing that this is a mystery and no one will be who they first appear I was still so intrigued about the depth of character for each major player. Just when I had them pegged they turned around and surprised me. Linnet for example, loved her, then hated her, then pitied her, then hated her, then loved her. Couldn’t decide who I wanted to survive this little trip down the Nile and who I wanted to watch rot in prison. It was exciting to keep finding surprises and complexities around every corner with these characters. I also really enjoyed the how masterfully Christie weaved the web of relationships on this journey. Some of the passengers knew each other (or thought that they did) and some didn’t but they all had some connection into each others lives which made the murder all the more intriguing.
Obviously there were a few things I didn’t absolutely love. Agatha Christie, being a successful and well-known woman in her time (and beyond), still managed to heavily rely on misogyny in order to group the men as the "protectors" and the women as "damsels in distress" or "hysterical". Her grouping genders into these cliche roles makes me think that if she can write the characters that way and support these gender roles so strongly in her writing, she must think that way in real life. But how can she think that way when, at the time of her writing this, she was doing something very unconventional and against the gender norm for women: writing. Not just any writing but writing horror and mystery and suspense! These aren’t gossip columns or romance novels, this is gritty and dark! I think it was a bit disappointing that she could succeed in crashing down barriers in gender equality in her real life yet would keep her female characters trapped in those roles. Hopefully there are some novels of hers out there that prove me wrong on this assumption. If you know of one, please recommend it to me.
I will most likely be revisiting Agatha Christie’s works, this one was a 3 star for me. It definitely kept me hooked and was marvellous writing, I just had some problems with her slight hypocrisy and the cliche way in which she grouped her characters. Otherwise, amazing read! I can’t wait to see the movie coming out.