Death on the Nile by Agatha ChristieMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Well, I spent an extra 15 mins this morning finishing this off, because you can't interrupt a good Christie denouement!
I haven't read that many Christies, I pick one up every so often and make my way through it. And of the ones I have read, this comes near the top. It has good pace, economical description, giving us enough to understand the characters, but it does not dwell too long on anything - Ms Christie makes every word count.
I love her colourful characters, the Otterbournes, Cordelia, even Jacqueline de Belfour herself - the background characters have just enough to them to stop short of being caricatures and Agatha has a soft spot for the young women, because they have more depth than all the others.
I've seen several adaptations of this book on TV, one which was fairly faithful and another that was missing characters. I have to say, though, apart from the denouement, which doesn't actually happen in one go the book, I prefer the book, but I think the TV improved on the drama, if not the realism of the thing with an all in one accusation fest - let's face it, with Christie, no-one is looking for realism!
All in all, a good mystery (if I hadn't known already what had happened, I would not have got there the same time Poirot did, it is a fairly devious plot) and it is an easy read. It would make an excellent airport/flight book, easily finished during a transatlantic flight by any moderate reader (I'm not hugely fast).
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