Death on the Nile
Agatha Christie’s most exotic murder mystery, reissued with a striking cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything – until she lost her life.Hercule Poirot recalls 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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Copyright
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by Collins 1937
Copyright © 1937 Agatha Christie Ltd.
All rights reserved.
The moral right of the author is asserted
"Essay by Charles Osborne" excerpted from The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie. Copyright © 1982, 1999 by Charles Osborne. Reprinted with permission.
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Source ISBN: 9780007527557
Ebook Edition © 2010 ISBN: 9780007422289 Version: 2018-09-05
To my old friend Sybil Bennett
who also loves wandering about the world
Contents
Authorâs Foreword
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
About Agatha Christie
The Agatha Christie Collection
E-Book Extras
Authorâs Foreword
Death on the Nile was written after coming back from a winter in Egypt. When I read it now I feel myself back again on the steamer from Assuan to Wadi Halfa. There were quite a number of passengers on board, but the ones in this book travelled in my mind and became increasingly real to meâin the setting of a Nile steamer. The book has a lot of characters and a very elaborately worked out plot. I think the central situation is intriguing and has dramatic possibilities, and the three characters, Simon, Linnet, and Jacqueline, seem to me to be real and alive.
My friend, Francis L. Sullivan, liked the book so much that he kept urging me to adapt it for the stage, which in the end I did.
I think, myself, that the book is one of the best of my âforeign travelâ ones, and if detective stories are âescape literatureâ (and why shouldnât they be!) the reader can escape to sunny skies and blue water as well as to crime in the confines of an armchair.
âLinnet Ridgeway!â
âThatâs her!â said Mr Burnaby, the landlord of the Three Crowns.
He nudged his companion.
The two men stared with round bucolic eyes and slightly open mouths.
A big scarlet Rolls-Royce had just stopped in front of the local post office.
A girl jumped out, a girl without a hat and wearing a frock that looked (but only looked) simple. A girl with golden hair and straight autocratic featuresâa girl with a lovely shapeâa girl such as was seldom seen in Malton-under-Wode.
With a quick imperative step she passed into the post office.
âThatâs her!â said Mr Burnaby again. And he went on in a low awed voice: âMillions sheâs gotâ¦Going to spend thousands on the place. Swimming-pools thereâs going to be, and Italian gardens and a ballroom and half of the house pulled down and rebuiltâ¦â
âSheâll bring money into the town,â said his friend. He was a lean, seedy-looking man. His tone was envious and grudging.
Mr Burnaby agreed.
âYes, itâs a great thing for Malton-under-Wode. A great thing it is.â
Mr Burnaby was complacent about it.
âWake us all up proper,â he added.
âBit of difference from Sir George,â said the other.
âAh, it was the âorses did for him,â said Mr Burnaby indulgently. âNever âad no luck.â
âWhat did he get for the place?â
âA cool sixty thousand, so Iâve heard.â
The lean man whistled.
Mr Burnaby went on triumphantly: âAnd they say sheâll have spent another sixty thousand before sheâs finished!â
âWicked!â said the lean man. âWhereâd she get all that money from?â
âAmerica, so Iâve heard. Her mother was the only daughter of one of those millionaire blokes. Quite like the pictures, isnât it?â
The girl came out of the post office and climbed into the car.
