Death on the Nile

I have read very few Agatha Christie novels. I dont't know if all of them have the same pattern..
In part one, she arranged different characters like long thin threads next to each other, clean and distinct, in the next part she mangled all of them together, that I could barely follow the connections...throw in a few red herrings here and there, towards the end I felt this was going to be an obscure unsatisfactory ending, that sprouted mid story - but no! everything was carefully crafted beginning to end and kind of veiled in plain sight. Awesome read.

I first read this one ages ago, so even though this is a re-read, I pretty much went into this one without an idea of what the solution was. I had a vague recollection of the solution halfway through, though, and turns out my memory was better than I expected. Still, this was a great and entertaining read.

Though this seems pretty Egyptian on the outside, what with the title and the Egyptian-looking setting on the cover, the story is very much all-English (and a little bit American). There isn't much of Egypt in this one besides the names of the locations that the characters go to, which is a shame considering this book was inspired by Christie's own trip to Egypt with her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan. Christie herself became an archaeologist in later life!

Poirot in this one was at least very much involved in the mystery from start to end, which I enjoy a lot more than other stories where he just dips in in the last 30% to solve the mystery. We also meet some very memorable characters like Linnet Ridgeway, Simon Doyle, and Jacqueline de Bellfort. The love triangle between these three isn't anything fresh but I thoroughly enjoyed how much the emotions of guilt and betrayal popped off the page.

Even though I vaguely remembered the solution halfway through, this was still a pageturner for me. I stayed up hideously late because I couldn't stop reading it. There's something magnetic and so easy and even comforting about Christie's writing and the way her mystery unfolds.

I also went to look up the cast list of the 2022 film just to see who they would cast in each character. I have to say it was a pretty stellar list (without having actually seen the movie to judge their performances). Gal Gadot and Letitia Wright in particular being Linnet Ridgeway and Rosalie Otterbourne seemed very well-casted. Arnie Hammer, actually precisely because of all the sleaziness and controversy surrounding him at the moment, was also an ironically good fit for Simon Doyle as well.

Though perhaps not as mind-blowing as Murder on the Orient Express or the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Death on the Nile is definitely a quintessentially great Christie to read and re-read, whether you're new to her or a long-time fan.