Series: Hercule Poirot (#17)
Shelved: Adult (mystery, classic)
Rating: ★★★
Challenge: Classics Challenge – #5
Buy: The Book Depository
More: Goodreads
I know, I’m know, I’m stretching the word ‘classic’ a little, but I’m allowed to take liberties with my own challenge. I unintentionally picked Death on the Nile to be my fifth classic exactly a year after reading And Then There Were None, a novel that blew me away. I bought a wonderful 1950s Penguin Classics edition from Skoob Books earlier this year because I knew it was one of her most popular novels.
I’d like to give you a little spoiler warning. I tend to think that anything mentioned when talking about mystery novels is a spoiler, but I haven’t said anything in this review that cannot be found in the blurb, which does say who is murdered.
It’s the 1930s and Linnet Ridgeway has everything. She’s beautiful, extremely wealthy, newly married, and admired by everyone. But her husband, Simon Doyle, was recently engaged to Linnet’s close friend, Jacqueline de Bellefort, who had unintentionally introduced the couple to each other in the hope that Linnet would give Simon a job. Understandably furious, Jacqueline begins to follow the happy couple everywhere they go, including on their honeymoon to Egypt. She’s stealthy, angry, and in a fit of emotion, she tells detective Hercule Poirot – also on holiday – that she would like nothing more than to shoot Linnet in the head. Shortly after, Linnet is found murdered.
As Death on the Nile was my first encounter with Hercule Poirot, I did not know quite what to expect before beginning the book, but what I found was a character who’s very self-assured, self-confident and I’d even say he is quite cocky, but no doubt you would be after solving so many crimes, especially in Agatha Christie’s world; so many of her characters so far seem blasé about murder! Poirot himself is a mysterious and elusive man – for a character who is constantly revealing the intimate details about other characters’ lives, we do not find out too much about him.
‘So it was she who told you.’
Poirot said gently, ‘Excuse me; she did not tell me.’
‘But then, how do you know?’
‘Because I’m Hercule Poirot I do not need to be told.’
Death on the Nile, surprisingly, often felt like a television drama. Jealously! Affairs! Revenge! Gossip! It was highly entertaining and I developed an affinity for Jacqueline de Bellefort in particular. I most likely shouldn’t, since she, let’s say, took it a bit too far! Yet I enjoyed her clarity and audacity and I was never completely sure whether she should remain a suspect or not. On a ship travelling down the Nile, tensions are high and everybody is suspect. Death on the Nile is also not exactly what we would call politically correct, and it really is fascinating to see what sort of language, cultural and social attitudes were deemed acceptable in the 1930s.
Death on the Nile, however, was much slower than And Then There Were None and so unfortunately I suspect it will not end up as one of my favourite Agatha Christie novels. It took nearly half of the book before a murder was committed and although I was quite enjoying the build up, it meant that the second half of the book – the attempt to solve the murder – was rushed. Even so, I’m very much looking forward to reading more Agatha Christie and I’d buy her entire backlist if I were able to. Next up, The Mysterious Affair at Styles!
Published: 1953, originally 1st November 1937
Publisher: Penguin Classics, but edition pictured published 2011 by HarperCollins
Pages: 416
If you liked: And Then There Were None
Welcome to my tour of Hampstead, Part 2! Before visiting 
As soon as you walk in, you see Daunt Books’ trademark Edwardian bookshelves and way of shelving books by country. I was surprised because I assumed this wouldn’t be possible in a smaller store, but clearly I was wrong! It still works wonderfully.
And the fiction section is equally as impressive.
As is their displays. If you’re like me and you do judge a book by its cover, you’ll appreciate face-out displays, which I think actually make much more sense for bookshops to have. And it makes you (me?) really appreciate book cover design.
Close up! I love that they use pretty fabric in all their stores. I wasn’t sure whether it was just in Marylebone.
All right, now we’re onto the children’s section and I’ve devoted the most space to this because it’s FREAKING AWESOME. Look! A den! Who, as a child, did not want a little den to hide in? In we go…
I’m about 5′ 4″, but if I were a bit taller, I’d have trouble standing up here. I was so excited about the den that I forgot to actually take a photo of the books. The entire wall opposite these cute little chairs was filled with picture books. I bet really tall parents have trouble getting their children out of here.
Murals on the walls of the den!
Here’s the children’s section outside of the den and we’ve not even gotten to the teen/young adult fiction section yet…
Bunting! I want these in my room. I could spend all day here. Daunt Books is just a lovely place to be. I want to take non-readers here to make them see what they’re missing out on.
And here’s a bit of the Older Readers section. I was so excited about and impressed with the children’s section in Daunt Books. I think matches, if not tops, the sections in two of the largest bookshops in London: Foyles Charing Cross and Waterstones Piccadilly, and this is just a local bookshop.
Here’s the view of the bookshop as you enter.
And a view of the front of the shop.
Unfortunately neither my friend or I bought a book, so here’s a photo I’m quite pleased with instead: 
It has been two months since I posted my last A Tour of London Bookshops post, when I visited 
