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Title: Death on the Nile
Author: Agatha Christie
Audiobook: 2004
Reader: David Suchet
Unabridged
Length: 8.5 hours

Ears: 4

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A wealthy, young and single American girl living in England on an estate she’s about to renovate sets the stage. Her best friend comes to visit and brings her Fiancé along for a job. We also meet the financial trustee for the estate, an author of sexy romance novels and several others, including the great detective Hercule Poirot. They all come together on a cruise down the Nile River. Of course, someone winds up dead, the pearl necklace worth fifty thousand pounds is missing and it’s up to Poirot to investigate. Characters from all over the globe are woven together into a plot that turns and twist much more than the river it’s named for.

The book actually starts off a bit slowly, introducing the seemingly unrelated cast of characters with no clear sequence of events. Once the plot begins to develop, and the connection between the characters comes to light, it moves very quickly and easily through the latter chapters. A very intricate puzzle with motive, opportunity and unexpected revelations at every turn unfolds with every chapter.

It’s hard to discuss Agatha Christie with anyone and not discuss Death on the Nile (published in 1937). Even people who don’t consider themselves Christie fans know this book. It’s the 17^th in the Poirot series and highly recommended to fans. If you’re new to Poirot, you might want to get a few of the earlier books in before this one as some reference is made to previous cases.

David Suchet reads and provides a masterful range of voices that help keep the characters straight. Suchet has played Poirot on the recent TV series and in several made for TV movies and recent fans will find his performance quite convincing as Poirot and very enjoyable to listen to. Fans of the TV series will be easily convinced it is Poirot. Come along for the journey, mon ami.

Reviewed on 3/27/06 by Ken Reiss