Like many of Dame Agatha’s mysteries, this one is again a closed room mystery. A wealthy heiress is murdered on a luxury cruise ship going down the Nile. The murderer has to be one of the other passengers on the ship, but several of them have motives, and more than one is traveling under an assumed identity.
The victim is Linnet Doyle née Ridgeway, a young and rich American woman,set to inherit her father’s fortune when she turns 21. Her childhood friend Jacqueline de Belleforte, now estranged, is also on the ship. Her late father’s business partners are also co-passengers.
There is but a small window when the crime could have happened, and the murderer seems obvious. But like in so many of Christie’s works, Poirot had to work hard to peel back all the layers to arrive at the true events leading to the death.
Always a pleasure to read an Agatha Christie murder mystery. Exotic locale, convoluted mystery, several suspects and no obvious answer… it’s as good as it gets.