Death on the Nile is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in November 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence.
The book features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The action takes place in Egypt, mostly on the Nile River.
Plot introduction
While dining at chic restaurant, Chez Ma Tante, Poirot overhears Jacqueline de Bellefort and Simon Doyle speaking to one another, and is concerned by the depth of her love for him. When next he meets her it is far away, in Egypt, and Simon Doyle is married to the woman who was once Jacqueline de Bellefort's best friend: the wealthy and beautiful Linnet Ridgeway. Jacqueline seems determined to have her revenge on them both. Can Poirot persuade her to abandon a course of action that promises disaster to everyone?
[edit] Plot summary
Jacqueline follows Simon and Linnet on their honeymoon, appearing without warning wherever they visit. When Simon suggests taking a river cruise aboard the Karnak, he lays a false trail and they think they have escaped, but Jacqueline is there once again and now they are trapped with her. When a boulder is apparently aimed at Linnet's head on a visit ashore, Jacqueline is immediately suspected but proves to have been away from where the incident takes place. (This later proves to be a piece of misdirection. The boulder was dislodged, possibly by accident but more likely on purpose, by Linnet's American legal representative, Mr. Pennington, who is keen to conceal irregularities in his dealings on her behalf. Jim Fanthorp, working for Linnet's English legal representatives, has been sent incognito to thwart Pennington's plans.)
In a dramatic scene after Linnet has gone to bed, Jacqueline shoots Simon in the leg with a pistol that is kicked away under a sofa (and which later is discovered to have disappeared completely). Full of repentance, Jacqueline is taken to be sedated and watched over. Dr. Bessner is awoken and tends to Simon to his cabin where his wound is dressed. Both therefore appear to have perfect alibis when it is discovered that Linnet has been shot in the head. Why then, has a J apparently been drawn on the wall in order to incriminate Jacqueline, while her pistol has been thrown into the river?
Poirot's investigation concentrates on this pistol, which is recovered from the Nile wrapped in a shawl with a bloody handkerchief. A number of red herrings feature, such as a bottle thrown into the water at the same time, and the theft of a pearl necklace in which Tim Allerton is a key suspect. The appearance of Poirot's old friend, Colonel Race, who is seeking an enemy spy, means that many of the holidaymakers are soon implicated or under suspicion.
While visiting Dr. Bessner's cabin, and within earshot of Bessner and Simon (who is confined there while convalescing) Louise Bourget, Linnet's maid, says something to Poirot that is taken to imply that she could have seen the murderer. Soon afterwards, she is discovered dead, stabbed through the heart, in her cabin. There is the torn corner of a thousand-franc note in her hand; clearly she has attempted to blackmail the murderer with fatal consequences. Just as she seems about to reveal the name of Bourget's killer, Mrs. Otterbourne is shot through an open cabin door.
In a celebrated denouement, it is discovered that Simon and Jacqueline have worked together. The original shooting was staged, leaving a stray bullet lodged in the leg of a table. As soon as he was left alone Simon retrieved the pistol, ran to Linnet's cabin and shot her, and added the J as an incriminating (though unduly theatrical) detail. He then retraced his steps, shot himself in the leg using the shawl to muffle the second shot and, incapable of moving, threw the pistol through a window to dispose of it, in time to be discovered by Dr. Bessner with a real injury.
Jacqueline has been forced to commit the second and third murders in an attempt to cover their tracks. Louise Bourget dropped the hint to Poirot in front of Simon because this was the only way that she could begin to blackmail him while he was confined to Bessner's cabin. Simon subsequently informed Jacqueline of this hint, and she stabbed Louise Bourget with one of Dr. Bessner's surgical knives. When he realized that Mrs. Otterbourne was about to reveal Jacqueline's role in Louise's murder, Simon cried out in an apparently fevered state, warning Jacqueline to make the desperate shot through the open door.
All along, Simon married Linnet to gain her money. Jacqueline planned Linnet's murder as she knew if Simon did it by himself, he would be caught, hence why she must come in to protect him. It seems that they will only be united in court, but Poirot allows them to escape justice when she shoots first Simon and then herself with a second pistol. The spy turns out to be Mr. Richetti, whose coded letter was opened in error by Linnet early in the novel. The jewel thief is indeed Tim Allerton, but Poirot allows him to replace the pearl necklace voluntarily and avoid prosecution, largely so that he can marry Rosalie and provide one of the novel's minor happy endings. The other one is the marriage of Cornelia Robson to Dr. Bessner. Mr. Ferguson, a strident left-winger who proves be a member of the British aristocracy traveling in disguise, was also a suitor for Cornelia's hand, but is quite possibly as surprised as the reader that he has lost out to the rather unprepossessing Bessner.