Death on the Nile. Agatha Christie
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Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street,
London SE1 9GF
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2010
First published in Great Britain by Collins 1937
Copyright © Agatha Christie Limited 1937.
The AC Monogram Logo and the Poirot Icon are trade marks and DEATH ON THE NILE, AGATHA CHRISTIE, POIROT and the Agatha Christie Signature are registered trademarks of Agatha Christie Limited in the UK and elsewhere.
All rights reserved.
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2020
Film artwork © 20th Century Studios 2020
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007527557
Ebook Edition © October 2010 ISBN: 9780007422289
Version: 2020-08-20
To my old friend Sybil Bennett
who also loves wandering about the world
Contents
Author’s 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
Author’s 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 me–in 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 ‘foreign travel’ ones, and if detective stories are ‘escape literature’ (and why shouldn’t they be!) the reader can escape to sunny skies and blue water as well as to crime in the confines of an armchair.
‘Linnet Ridgeway!’
‘That’s her!’ 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 features–a girl with a lovely shape–a girl such as was seldom seen in Malton-under-Wode.
With a quick imperative step she passed into the post office.
‘That’s her!’ said Mr Burnaby again. And he went on in a low awed voice: ‘Millions she’s got…Going to spend thousands on the place. Swimming-pools there’s going to be, and Italian gardens and a ballroom and half of the house pulled down and rebuilt…’
‘She’ll bring money into the town,’ said his friend. He was a lean, seedy-looking man. His tone was envious and grudging.
Mr Burnaby agreed.
‘Yes, it’s a great thing for Malton-under-Wode. A great thing it is.’
Mr Burnaby was complacent about it.
‘Wake