Death On The Nile

Chapter One is divided into twelve sections, each of which introduces a character or circumstance that will play a key role in the murder mystery to follow. The characters are scattered across the world, but will convene in Egypt, where (as the title indicates) the murder will occur.

Section One is set in the English village of Malton-under-Wode and introduces the central character, Linnet Ridgeway. Through the townspeople’s conversation, we learn that Linnet is a beautiful young millionaire, the heiress to an American fortune, and that she has recently purchased a local property at a high price from a member of the local gentry, Sir George Wode, who was forced to sell his estate after his gambling left him bankrupt. Linnet is planning to make costly renovations to the property, and the residents of Malton-under-Wode are likely to benefit from the money Linnet will bring to the town.

Section Two is an excerpt from the society page of the Daily Blague. In it we learn that there are rumors Linnet Ridgeway may soon be engaged to a certain Lord Charles Windlesham, and that she has recently been seen at the restaurant Chez Ma Tante with him and the Hon. Joanna Southwood.

Section Three is set at Linnet’s home, Wode Hall, where she is entertaining the Hon. Joanna Southwood. Joanna compliments Linnet effusively, commenting on Linnet’s practicality, her swift progress on the renovation planning, and her “exquisitely matched” (13) string of pearls, which Linnet says are worth about fifty-thousand pounds. Joanna asks whether Linnet is afraid the pearls could be stolen, and Linnet responds that she always wears them, and in any case, they are insured. Joanna then asks to borrow the pearls to wear until dinnertime. Linnet agrees. Joanna remarks that Linnet has everything: “Here you are at twenty, your own mistress, with any amount of money, looks, superb health. You’ve even got brains!” (13). She asks whether Linnet plans to marry Lord Charles Windlesham, whom Joanna describes as “frightfully devoted” (14) to her, but Linnet responds that she isn’t ready to marry yet.

The conversation is interrupted by the telephone. Linnet’s best friend, Jacqueline “Jackie” de Bellefort, the broke daughter of a count, calls and asks to come for a visit. Linnet invites her to come around tea-time. When she learns of Jackie’s financial situation, Joanna remarks that she immediately drops any friend who loses their money; Linnet responds that Joanna is “beastly” (16) and that Jackie is too proud to accept the help Linnet has offered her in the past. Linnet observes that Jackie, who “always did get frightfully worked up over things” (16), once stabbed a boy with a penknife, and sounded especially excited on the phone.

While Linnet and Joanna are discussing Jackie, Linnet’s maid, Marie, enters in tears. Linnet explains that Marie had wanted to marry a man who had a job in Egypt. Linnet investigated the man’s background and learned that he was already married with three children. “What a lot of enemies you must make, Linnet” (17), remarks Joanna. Linnet responds, “Why, I haven’t got an enemy in the world” (17).

Section Four is set at Wode Hall later the same day. Lord Windlesham, sitting on the lawn at Wode, daydreams about marrying Linnet and bringing her to his own home, a larger mansion called Charltonbury. Although Linnet has refused his marriage proposal, Windlesham considers it “not…at all a definite refusal” but rather “little more than a plea for time” (18). Windlesham muses that he loves Linnet and would have been happy to marry her even if she had been penniless, but “fortunately, she was one of the richest girls in England” (18).

Section Five is also set at Wode Hall. At 4:00 pm, Jackie de Bellefort arrives and greets Linnet enthusiastically. She soon reveals that she has come to ask Linnet a favor. Jackie is engaged to a poor man called Simon Doyle, who is freshly out of work. She asks Linnet to hire him as her land agent so that they can marry: “I shall die if I can’t marry him! I shall die! I shall die! I shall die” (21). Linnet agrees to meet Simon and to consider hiring him, and Jackie immediately leaves for London to tell him the good news.

Section Six is set at the stylish restaurant Chez Ma Tante, where Hercule Poirot is dining. Poirot is, “alas” (24), not currently engaged in work, and planning to holiday in Egypt in the winter. As Poirot observes his surroundings, he notices Jackie and Simon Doyle dancing and remarks, “She cares too much, that little one…[i]t is not safe. No, it is not safe” (26).

Poirot overhears that Linnet has hired Simon, and that Simon and Jackie are planning to marry in three months’ time and to honeymoon in Egypt. Jackie suddenly asks Simon, “Do you really care—as much as I do?”, and Simon’s answer is “quickly crisp: ‘Don’t be absurd, Jackie’” (27). Hearing the conversation, Poirot says to himself, “Une qui aime et un qui se laisse aimer [One who loves and one who allows himself to be loved]. Yes, I wonder too” (28).

Section Seven takes us back to Wode Hall, where Joanna Southwood, remarking on Linnet’s decision to hire Simon, asks, “[a]nd suppose he’s a terrible tough?” (28). Linnet responds that she can trust Jackie’s taste, but Joanna counters that “people don’t run true to form in love affairs” (28).

Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Windlesham. Musing about her resistance to Windlesham’s proposal of marriage, Linnet remembers Jackie’s passionate exclamation (“I shall die if I can’t marry him!”) and notes that she does not feel as passionate about Windlesham, and that it must be wonderful to feel that way about someone.

At that moment, Jackie and Simon arrive. Linnet sees Simon and immediately likes “the way he [looks] at her, the naïve genuine admiration” (33). She reflects on Simon’s admiration: “Jackie had told him she was wonderful, and he clearly thought that she was wonderful,” and “a warm sweet feeling of intoxication [runs] through her veins” (33). Linnet decides on the spot to hire Simon as her land agent and immediately begins to envy Jackie’s relationship with Simon.

Section Eight is set in Majorca, where Tim Allerton and his mother, Mrs. Allerton, are vacationing. Tim, whose health is delicate, suggests to his mother that they travel to Egypt, where it is warmer. When his mother objects that Egypt is expensive, Tim counters that he will sponsor the trip with money from his stocks, as he has just learned of his profits this morning. Mrs. Allerton objects that the only letter Tim has received this morning was from his cousin, Joanna Southwood, whose distinctive handwriting “sprawls about all over the envelope like an inebriated spider” (35). Tim responds that she is right; he misspoke, and in fact heard from the stockbroker yesterday.

Mrs. Allerton asks about Joanna, attempting to “make her voice sound casual and ordinary” (35), despite the fact that something about Tim’s association with Joanna makes her uncomfortable: jealousy, perhaps, or the feeling that her presence interrupts Tim and Joanna’s conversations and that they include her “rather too purposefully and as if duty bound” (36). In any case, Mrs. Allerton dislikes Joanna, and finds her “insincere, affected, and essentially superficial” (36), and has clearly said so to Tim before.

Tim reports the gossip that Joanna has passed on to him, including the news that Linnet Ridgeway has given Windlesham a definite refusal and is now planning to marry Simon Doyle, who is now her land agent and is no longer engaged to Jackie.

Mrs. Allerton observes to herself that Tim shows her most of his letters, but only reads her excerpts from Joanna’s; she then “[decides], as ever, to behave like a gentlewoman” (38) and dismisses the thought. She asks after Joanna’s well-being, and when Tim says that Joanna is thinking of opening a shop, Mrs. Allerton remarks that although Joanna talks about being broke, “she goes about everywhere and her clothes must cost her a lot” (38). Tim responds that Joanna probably doesn’t pay her bills. Mrs. Allerton notes that this kind of behavior is likely to land her in bankruptcy court, like Sir George Wode. The remark leads to a more earnest conversation, in which Tim and Mrs. Allerton acknowledge that Sir George was extremely sad to give up Wode Hall and seems to hold a grudge against Linnet for having paid him such a good price for the run-down estate.

Tim insists to Mrs. Allerton that they leave for Egypt in January, and she reluctantly agrees. Mrs. Allerton asks Tim to do a favor. One of their fellow hotel guests, Mrs. Leech, needs help visiting the police station because she needs to file a report and doesn’t speak Spanish. Tim agrees to visit the police station with Mrs. Leech, but remarks that the ring she wants to report stolen was on her finger when she went into the sea and must have come off in the water. Mrs. Allerton says that Mrs. Leech is sure she last saw it on her dressing-table, but Tim contradicts her, saying, “I saw it with my own eyes. The woman’s a fool” (41).

Mrs. Allerton remarks that she wishes there were more young people for Tim to associate with in Majorca, and Tim responds that he is perfectly content with his mother’s company. “You’d like it if Joanna were here,” responds Mrs. Allerton (41), but Tim responds, “unexpectedly resolute[ly]” (42) that he would not, and that he would not be upset if he were never to see Joanna again.

Section Nine is set in New York City. Wealthy, elderly Miss Marie Van Schuyler has just invited her young cousin, Cornelia Robson, to accompany her on a trip to Europe. Cornelia is delighted: “I’ve always dreamed of a trip to Europe, but I just didn’t feel I’d ever get there” (42). Miss Van Schuyler is satisfied with “this correct attitude on the part of poor relations” and explains that Cornelia’s role is to serve as her social companion, while Miss Bowers, who serves as a nurse and personal assistant, will attend Miss Van Schuyler as usual (42). On her way out of the building, Cornelia’s mother, Mrs. Robson, runs into Miss Bowers in the stairwell. “I do hope—there won’t be any—trouble,” she says to Miss Bowers (44). “Oh, no, Mrs. Robson; I shall take good care of that,” Miss Bowers reassures her (44).

Section Ten is set in Andrew Pennington and Sterndale Rockford’s law office in New York. Pennington, who is Linnet’s uncle and her American trustee, has just received a letter from Linnet announcing her marriage to Simon Doyle. Visibly upset by this news, Pennington tells Rockford that he has “an idea there’s something hole-and-corner about this business” (45). He begins to elaborate his worries: “Those British lawyers—” (46), but stops before completing the thought. Pennington suggests that either he or Rockford set sail on the Normandie to intercept Linnet on her honeymoon in Egypt. The men agree that the situation is “critical” and decide that Pennington should be the one to go, since he is Linnet’s uncle and “always made a hit” (47) with her. Pennington will pretend that the meeting is a coincidence, and that he set sail on another ship, the Carnatic, before receiving Linnet’s letter. 

Section Eleven is set in the office of Linnet’s British lawyers, Carmichael, Grant & Carmichael. William Carmichael sends for his nephew, Jim Fanthorp, to show him a sheaf of papers, among which is a letter from Linnet, reporting that she has unexpectedly run into Andrew Pennington in Egypt: “I had no idea he was in Egypt and he had no idea that I was! Nor that I was married! My letter, telling him of my marriage, must have just missed him” (48). Carmichael and Fanthorp agree that Pennington’s presence in Egypt cannot be a coincidence. Carmichael sends Fanthorp to Egypt, since neither Linnet nor Pennington have met him and will not recognize him. When Fanthorp questions whether the trip is really necessary, Carmichael responds that “it’s absolutely vital” (49).

Section Twelve is set in Jerusalem, where Mrs. Otterbourne and her daughter, Rosalie, are vacationing. Mrs. Otterbourne, a once-famous novelist, suggests moving on to Egypt, as she is offended that the hotel staff have not treated her with the respect due to one whose “being here is an advertisement” (50). In fact, she says, the hotel manager has asked her and Rosalie to vacate their rooms. Rosalie, absorbed in a newspaper announcement about Linnet and Simon Doyle’s marriage, agrees that, all things considered, they ought to move on to Egypt: “one place is very like another” and “it doesn’t make any difference” (50). Mrs. Otterbourne agrees that “it’s certainly not a matter of life or death” (50). However, the third-person omniscient narrator remarks at the end of the chapter: “But there she was quite wrong—for a matter of life and death was exactly what it was” (50).