Summary of Death on the Nile, a sensational mystery by Agatha Christie

death on the nile by Agatha Christie

You’re traveling on a small cruise that has a good housing facility, you’re enjoying your vacation with your cruise sailing ahead on the world’s longest river, and then you come to know about the murder of a fellow passenger.

How did you feel?

Did it send a chill down your spine?

If you want to feel this experience through reading then you should buy ‘Death on the Nile’ by Agatha Christie.

But if you’re so intrigued that you can’t wait to read the entire book then you should keep reading this article which presents to you the summary of ‘Death on the Nile’ by Agatha Christie.

What is the plot of death on the Nile?

My synopsis of ‘Death on the Nile’ starts with presenting the backdrop first.

I have kept the events of ‘Death on the Nile’ storyline in order as they are given in the actual Agatha Christie novel.

I recommend to you that once you start reading this synopsis of Death on the Nile, don’t stop until you reach the end otherwise you will take yourself away from one of the best crime mysteries ever written.

Linnet and Jacqueline - two best friends

Linnet Ridgeway is a millionaire young woman who has inherited a fortune from her grandfather.

She receives a call from her best friend Jacqueline de Bellefort, who informs her that she is coming to meet her.

The two best friends meet.

Jacqueline is broke and in love with a handsome guy Simon Doyle.

Simon has been fired from his job and is currently out of work.

Jacqueline thus persuades Linnet to give him a job, to which Linnet asks to bring Simon over and she would see what she could do.

Chez La Tante - the entry of Hercule Poirot

Hercule Poirot notices Simon and Jacqueline in the restaurant Chez La Tante.

They are dancing together and are extremely happy.

By reading Jacqueline’s flushed face, Poirot concluded that Jacqueline’s care for Simon exceeds limits.

Jacqueline is sure that Linnet will give Simon the job and they dream of going to Egypt for their honeymoon.

Jacqueline and Simon then meet Linnet.

Linnet, at the first sight of handsome Simon, feels attraction towards him and thus starts liking him instantly.

Egypt

The story cuts to Egypt where Hercule Poirot is enjoying his vacation.

Linnet and Simon are married and they too are in Egypt.

He encounters Jacqueline bumping into Simon and Linnet, with a threatening look in her eyes.

Linnet meets Poirot informing him how Jacqueline has been stalking her and Simon wherever they go.

Linnet also tells him that Jacqueline is enraged and has thus threatened to kill them both.

She tries to hire Poirot for convincing Jacqueline to stay away from them but Poirot politely refuses.

Poirot shows a mirror to Linnet by deducing how she exercised her charm to snatch Simon away from Linnet when she should have restrained herself.

Poirot tells Linnet that he would talk to Jacqueline in the interest of humanity but not for Linnet’s sake.

Hercule Poirot meets Jacqueline

Poirot meets Jacqueline to tell her to leave Simon for the good.

Jacqueline retorts by saying that she has come too far and will get peace only when she kills one of Linnet and Simon.

She also shows a pistol to Poirot for pulling the stunt.

Poirot warns her of the consequences she might face if she treads on this path but Jacqueline refuses to understand.

Karnak

Simon Doyle talks with Poirot and tells him about his plans to onboard a steamer ‘Karnak’ from Shellal to Wadi Halfa, under different names to mislead Jacqueline.

Poirot informs Simon that he himself is set to travel from ‘Karnak’

Poirot boards Karnak from Shellal where he finds Linnet and Simon already present.

The moment Linnet thinks that they have deceived Jacqueline into believing that they are elsewhere, Jacqueline appears on the steamer laughing.

Her appearance upsets Linnet, who tells Poirot that she is too afraid and feels surrounded by enemies.

Along with Linnet, Simon, Jacqueline, and Poirot, following people also boarded Karnak.

Death on the Nile characters summary

Colonel Race - ex-army chief, who was also a detective in four of Agatha Christie’s novels. Also, a friend of Hercule Poirot.

Salome Otterbourne - A bad-tempered woman, who is an author of romance novels.

Rosalie Otterbourne - Bad-tempered daughter of Mrs. Salome Otterbourne. She is always rude to Poirot.

Mrs. Allerton - a fifty-something woman who travels on Karnak with her son. She loves her son, and wants good for him but displays a facade of strictness.

Tim Allerton - a thin young man who is the son of Mrs. Allerton.

Marie Van Schuyler - A wealthy American socialite who has already heard about Hercule Poirot from Rufus Van Aldin. She onboards Karnak with her cousin and nurse. Her cabin is one of the delux cabins on Karnak.

Cornelia Robson - The broke cousin of Miss Van Schuyler.

Miss Bowers - The nurse of Miss Van Schuyler who has been looking after her for two years.

Mr. Ferguson - A young aristocrat who courts Cornelia Robson on the journey. He likes her and proposes to her as well.

Signor Richetti - an Italian archaeologist who behaves rudely most of the time.

Louise Bourget - the maid of Linnet Ridgeway.

James (Jim) Fanthorp - A young quiet intelligent man, who as per Poirot listens attentively.

Dr. Carl Bessner - a German doctor onboard Karnak.

Fleetwood - an engineer onboard Karnak.

Escape from the boulder

Linnet, Simon, and a few fellow passengers along with Hercule Poirot visit the temple of Ramses.

Outside the temple, Simon and Linnet are sitting relaxed with their back to the cliff.

On receiving a signal from his fellow passengers, Simon notices a boulder rolling down towards Linnet.

He quickly pulls Linnet off saving her life.

Simon tells Poirot angrily that it was Jacqueline who bowled it down towards Linnet.

However, Poirot and Simon notice Jacqueline coming ashore later.

On seeing Jacqueline getting out of Karnak, Simon feels relieved that it was not her who tried to kill them.

At Wadi Halfa, Colonel Race, Poirot’s old acquaintance from London boards Karnak.

Colonel Race is set to sail back to Shellal on Karnak.

He tells Poirot that he is looking for a cold-blooded murderer who is on Karnak, but he hasn’t seen that murderer ever and thus can’t identify him.

Poirot shares with Colonel Race that he feels something catastrophic may happen on the boat.

The scene in the Saloon

Poirot is feeling sleepy around midnight while sitting inside the saloon.

Linnet and Simon are playing bridge with Race and Pennington on a table in the saloon.

Jim Fanthorp is reading a book on a table in the saloon too.

Poirot thinks of retiring and on his way out of the saloon he bumps into Jacqueline, who is entering the saloon.

Cornelia Robson also visits the saloon at the same time.

Jacqueline and Simon exchange glances and the situation starts turning clumsy for Simon.

After their card game is over, Linnet moves out of the saloon for her cabin, followed by Colonel Race and Pennington.

Now remaining in the saloon are Jim Fanthorp, Jacqueline, Simon, and Cornelia.

Jim Fanthorp also leaves the saloon in some time.

Jacqueline starts creating a scene by criticizing Simon and forbidding Cornelia from leaving the cabin.

She suddenly pulls out her pistol and shoots Simon in the leg.

Jacqueline then freaks out realizing that she has hurt badly the person she loves the most.

She drops the pistol and kicks it away. The pistol stops under a settee.

Jim Fanthorp, who was still not far away from the saloon, rushes in after being called by Cornelia.

Simon, injured with his trouser turning crimson around the area of the leg where he was shot, requests Jim and Cornelia to take Jacqueline to her cabin.

Simon requests Cornelia to call Miss Bowers to calm Jacqueline down and at the same time, instructs Jim Fanthorp to call Dr. Bessner for medical assistance for himself.

Mr. Fanthorp and Cornelia then take Jacqueline away out of the saloon leaving Simon alone on the deck.

Cornelia calls Miss Bowers who then comes to the assistance of Jacqueline in the cabin.

After Jim Fanthorp sees Jacqueline in the capable hands of Miss Bowers, he rushes to call Dr. Bessner.

Dr. Bessner goes to the deck along with Jim Fanthorp and sees Simon in agony.

Dr. Bessner, Jim Fanthorp, and Cornelia then bring Simon Doyle to Dr. Bessner’s cabin where he is injected with a painkiller by the doctor.

Before passing out because of the medicine injected, Simon requests Jim Fanthorp to go and look for the pistol that would still be on the deck.

In the doorway, Jim meets Miss Bowers.

Miss Bowers tells him that she has injected Jacqueline with morphine and that she is going to stay with her for the night.

After a while, Jim Fanthorp comes back to Dr. Bessner’s cabin to reveal that the gun has been missing.

Who dies in ‘Death on the Nile’?

The next day Poirot is shaving when Colonel Race comes to him.

He informs him that tragedy has struck the boat in the form of Linnet Doyle shot through the head.

Poirot and Race rush to Linnet’s cabin to examine the crime scene where they see the letter ‘J’ written on the wall in brownish-red color.

The letter ‘J’ indicates Jacqueline and they think that Jacqueline indeed committed the crime in a fit of anger.

Poirot then begins interviewing the passengers in the smoking room.

Ms. Bowers informs Poirot that Jacqueline was with her the whole night.

Also, Dr. Bessner confirms that Simon Doyle was fast asleep in Dr. Bessner’s cabin as a result of the strong opiate he gave him.

Jim Fanthorp informs Poirot during the interview that he heard a splash around 1 o’clock in the night. Listening to this, Colonel Race also tells Poirot that he might have heard this splashing sound too.

Interview with Louise Bourget

Poirot interviews Louise Bourget.

She looks frightened during the interview, however, with a cunning look on her face.

Louise confirms to Poirot that she didn’t see the murderer as she was on the deck below.

But she also says that if she had been unable to sleep, had come up the stairs then she would have seen the murderer enter Linnet’s cabin.

During the interview with Louise Bourget, Poirot deduces that Linnet’s expensive pearl necklace is missing.

Interview with Miss Van Schuyler

Miss Van Schuyler tells Poirot and Race that she also heard the same splash sound exactly around 10 mins past twelve.

She went outside to check and saw Rosalie Otterbourne leaning over the side.

She tells Poirot that she is sure about Rosalie Otterbourne dropping something that time.

During the interview, the manager enters the room and reveals that he has found the murder weapon, the pistol wrapped in a velvet stole.

Miss Van Schuyler says it is her velvet stole that went missing after she last saw it in the saloon, the previous evening.

Colonel Race tells that the velvet stole was used to reduce the sound of bullet firing.

To Poirot, the sequence of events does not make sense as the murderer, if he or she wanted to incriminate Jacqueline must have left the pistol in Linnet’s cabin only.

The truth behind the splash

Poirot explains his deduction to Rosalie Otterbourne that it was her who threw a cache of spirits overboard on the night of the murder, which caused the heavy splash sound.

Poirot tells that Salome Otterbourne, Rosalie’s mother is a drunkard. Rosalie figured out the cache of spirits that her mother hid from her.

As she didn’t want her to drink, she threw it overboard in the river.

Rosalie agrees with Poirot. She explains that when Salome Otterbourne’s books didn’t sell, she turned to alcohol.

But she also confirms to Poirot that she didn’t see anyone around on the night of the murder.

Pearl Necklace are found

All the passengers are brought into the saloon.

Race indicates that a thorough search of all cabins will be made to find out the pearls.

This is when Miss Bowers reveals that she has the pearls.

Miss Bowers reveals that she found this pearl necklace in the stockings of Miss Van Schuyler and that she is a kleptomaniac.

She also says that Miss Van Schuyler is a little hard of hearing.

The second murder

Poirot and Race went on searching all the cabins when in the cabin of Louise Bourget, they find her dead body under the bed.

She is found stabbed to the heart with a thousand-franc note in her right hand.

They deduce that she saw the killer entering Linnet Doyle’s cabin and was blackmailing him or her.

The third murder

Race and Poirot enter Dr. Bessner’s cabin and inform him and Simon Doyle about the murder of Louise Bourget.

Mrs. Otterbourne rushes in to reveal that she knows the identity of the killer who killed Louise Bourget as she herself saw that person.

When she is about to reveal the name of the killer, a loud revolver shot is heard, as a result of which Mrs. Otterbourne’s body falls on the floor dead.

Poirot rushes to find out the killer only to find Andrew Pennington’s revolver on the floor.

Andrew Pennington

Poirot confronts Andrew Pennington and forces him to reveal that it was him who pushed that boulder to kill Linnet.

Andrew Pennington is responsible for irregularities with Linnet’s holdings.

For hiding his wrongdoings, he tried to obtain Linnet’s signature on some legal documents but given that Linnet was habitual of meticulously examining every document, he pulled himself away.

He also admitted that pushing the boulder on Linnet was an accident and establishes firmly that he hasn’t shot her.

Poirot then calls Tim Allerton to reveal that Tim is the original necklace thief.

Tim Allerton substituted the original pearl necklace with an imitation that Miss Van Schuyler stole. Poirot deduces that Tim has hidden the pearls in a rosary hung in his cabin.

Poirot also reveals that Rosalie Otterbourne saw him entering and exiting Linnet’s cabin on the night of the murder but said ‘No’ on being asked.

Tim Allerton confesses to the crime but swears that he hasn’t killed Linnet.

Rosalie Otterbourne is in love with Time and was thus trying to protect him.

Poirot chooses not to report his crime to the police and instructs Tim to return the original pearl necklace.

Tim promises to leave the path of theft and proposes to Rosalie to marry him.

Mrs. Allerton is also happy seeing Rosalie and Tim as a couple.

While Poirot gets close to revealing the truth, Jim Fanthorp emerges to be an attorney who was sent to keep a check on Pennington’s activities by Linnet’s British solicitors.

Who was the criminal Colonel Race was looking for?

Dr. Bessner amusingly talks of a telegram that is about potatoes and artichokes, which triggers Race to deduce that the criminal he is after is Signor Righetti.

When he asks Poirot that did Signor Righetti kill Linnet Doyle, Poirot politely dismisses the idea and finally agrees to reveal the killer.

Who killed Linnet Doyle, Louise Bourget, and Mrs. Otterbourne? [SPOILER ALERT]

Poirot reveals that their ‘preconceived idea’ that the crime was committed in the spur of the moment was wrong.

The murder was a premeditated one.

Hercule Poirot was drugged through the wine he drinks so as to keep him asleep during the events on the night of the murder.

Since he was tired enough to feel sleepy, it didn’t raise suspicion when he felt heavily sleepy.

The murder was committed by Simon and Jacqueline.

Jacqueline staged shooting Simon in the leg but he wasn’t indeed shot.

He clasped the part of his leg with a handkerchief that was dipped in red ink which gave the impression of a real bullet wound.

When Cornelia and Jim Fanthorp took Jacqueline out, Simon quickly picked up the pistol from under the settee, ran from the other side of the boat, and shot Linnet.

Simon kept the bottle in which there was red ink back into Linnet’s cabin. The two nail polish bottles were searched by Hercule Poirot.

He was doubtful on finding one of the bottles having drops of red ink in it.

He came back and then shot himself in the leg by using the velvet stole to deaden the noise of the shot.

Poirot reveals that Simon had an extra bullet which he re-loaded in the pistol so as to stage that only two shots were fired from the pistol.

As he couldn’t put the pistol into Linnet’s cabin, he threw it in the river by opening the window.

Poirot tells that while interviewing Louise Bourget she told that if she had mounted the stairs, she would have seen the killer entering and exiting Linnet’s cabin.

He tells that Louise indeed saw Simon entering and exiting Linnet’s cabin.

In fact, she was hinting to Simon that she knew about his deed, to which Simon said that he would take care of her.

Poirot then reveals that it was Jacqueline who stabbed Louise as Simon couldn’t have done so with an injured leg.

Mrs. Otterbourne saw Jacqueline entering Louise’s cabin.

When Mrs. Otterbourne came to see Race and Poirot to reveal Jacqueline’s name, Simon asked her in a loud voice to reveal the name of the killer.

He was actually trying to inform Jacqueline about Mrs. Otterbourne who then used Andrew Pennington’s pistol to shoot Mrs. Otterbourne.

The confession

Simon confesses the crime.

Poirot confronts Jacqueline who says even though they planned it well but they couldn’t outsmart Poirot.

Jacqueline confesses that she and Simon loved each other. Simon hated Linnet as she was bossy but was attracted to her money.

She tells Poirot that it was Simon’s idea to kill Linnet, after whose death Simon would naturally get all her wealth.

Jacqueline confesses that she designed the entire murder plan as Simon was not capable enough to pull it off alone.

When they unboard the boat, Jacqueline reaches near the stretcher of Simon, bends down to tie the lace of her shoe, gets up with a pistol in her hand, and shoots Simon.

Before Race tries to get her, she shoots herself in the heart thus committing suicide.

Poirot reveals that he knew about Jacqueline having a second pistol, which she hid in Cornelia Robson’s purse.

When Mrs. Allerton asks Poirot if he wanted them to take this way out, Poirot says ‘yes’.

Cornelia accepts Dr. Bessner’s proposal and agrees to marry him disappointing Mr. Ferguson and thus leaving him annoyed.

Conclusion - summary of Death on the Nile

Death on the Nile is one of the best novels by Agatha Christie.

I am sure you would agree with me after reading its synopsis.

A movie based on this novel was released in 2022 in which Kenneth Branagh played Poirot.

If you made it till here then you know who the killer in the novel was.

Tell me honestly, were you able to deduce the killer yourself before Hercule Poirot revealed them to you?

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