Reviews with content warning for Racism - Der Tod auf dem Nil

Perhaps my fault for reading Orient Express first... but this was largely a disappointment after that!

Pros: It carried its themes of class, money, and love pretty well. The clues were largely well-dropped, enough for me to pick up on inconsistencies/hints and vaguely link them in my head so that Poirot could satisfyingly lay the full explanations out for me. Many of the central characters - especially the trio of Linnet, Simon, and Jacqueline - felt flawed, interesting, and real; hard to pull off in a tightly-paced mystery. And of course as in any Christie story, it was a very clever mystery.

Where it went wrong for me: Firstly, the Orientalist racism of the book's setting has not aged at all well, and it was really uncomfortable to read caricatures of Egyptian people who were not treated as actual characters at all.

Secondly, while I liked some of the B-plots, such as that of the Allertons, the Otterbournes, and Cornelia, others were fairly unsatisfactory: Pennington being

a crook but not a murderer

and Risetti being

a different, unrelated murderer

were rather disappointing red herrings as they really contributed nothing to the mystery and were basically disregarded after these things were worked out. Additionally, the whole thing with Ferguson the noble-born communist was just an off-note. Maybe it was meant to be comic relief but it was just scene after scene of a highly unpleasant man saying unrealistically unpleasant things, with no deeper thoughts ever revealed behind it, and no relevance to the plot; it really just felt like a political caricature!

My main disappointment, though, was the reveal of the real murder plot:

The killers actually being the two people with the most obvious motive from the beginning COULD be done well, but I think I felt short-changed because it felt as if we'd already seen several sides of Jacqueline. Her going from carefree friend to seemingly unhinged stalker, to then the very tender conversation she has with Poirot, where she seems an understandably miserable and desperate person, was really compelling. It felt sweet, in the midst of a murder mystery, to give time for a storyline of character growth, about the realisation that terrible things happen but there's no sense in continuing the suffering for others.

...And then it turned out that nope, she WAS calculating and ruthless to a terrifying degree? That's what felt a letdown to me... it seemed the narrative had made an effort to get us to sympathise with someone whose actions at times seemed very unsympathetic, and then it said "Actually she IS a totally unfeeling killer"?

Plus just... Okay. the fact the entire thing hinged on Simon being able to sprint like hell across a boat while he's supposed to be grievously wounded, even though he could be spotted (and was), to swiftly murder his wife, and then run back and actually shoot himself in the leg before anyone comes back? A wound that could become pretty serious because you're several days away from a hospital? That's. Like. If you were going to pre-plan a murder THIS elaborately then SURELY you'd make a sturdier plan than this? Very weird contrivance. And if they're this nonchalant about shooting people who get in the way then I feel like they'd just shoot Poirot lol. He at least still proves much more likeable than Sherlock Holmes though.

...Still, it's 2:30 AM and I stayed up to see how it ended, so that at least tells you it got its hooks into me!

Content Warnings

j_squaredd's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Content Warnings

unknown_reader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Content Warnings

xphilphil's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

hanarama's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

The Good:

Well constructed mystery
Plenty of twists

The Bad:

Racism (reflective of the period)
Sometimes clues are forgettable

You Might Like this if You Like:

Police procedurals
Detective fiction
True crime

Agatha Christie is one of my go-to authors when I need a break from world-building heavy fantasies and sci-fi. There's something so simple and enjoyable about just taking in clues and following a clever detective along in a murder mystery.

The mystery feels solvable, and by that, I mean that I feel as though the reader could solve it if they consider all of the clues. This might be hard though as some clues are breezed by in the narrative, so it can be hard to keep them all in mind. And the solution does still feel like a twist when Hercule Poirot explains it all at the end.

My biggest issue with Christie is the occasional racist depictions of characters of color. This is particularly notable with mysteries that take place outside of Europe. So unfortunately, this book has a couple of racist depictions of Egyptians and Nubians. The main characters are also all wealthy white people.

Content Warnings

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