If asked to describe a typical Agatha Christie murder mystery, I’d say that the plot usually revolves around the violent death of a member of British upper-class society. The setting is, more often than not, a vast country estate or exclusive resort, where a small group of people who know the victim have gathered. Of course, each person has a good motive for killing the victim, which makes the mystery last for most of the book.
Well, in Death Comes as the End, Christie does something a bit different: she uses ancient Egypt as the backdrop for murder and mayhem. The rest of her formula remains the same, however, which lessened the impact of the work as a whole.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Renisenb is a recently widowed young woman who returns home after entombing her husband to live with her father Imhotep; brothers Yahmose, Sobek, and Ipy; and their wives Satipy and Kait. Imhotep, is a well-to-do mortuary priest who is respected by everyone except his own family, with each son and his wife wanting a bigger share of responsibility and wealth.
This internal strife is heightened when Imhotep returns one day with a young concubine named Nofret. Imhotep dotes on Nofret to such an extent that it causes a great deal of jealousy in the house. Yahmose, Sobek, and Ipy are worried that Nofret will exert undue influence on their father, while Satipy and Kait are anxious about securing their children’s welfare after Nofret openly spurns them.
Nofret is a master manipulator and soon works everyone up in a frenzy while Imhotep is away on another business trip. The next day, however, she is found dead after apparently falling from a cliff. At first, it seems as though Nofret’s death might very well have been accidental; but after Satipy plunges to her death in exactly the same manner just a short time later, it’s clear that a murderer is on the loose.
In the weeks that follow, more family members are murdered, causing everyone in the household to think that Nofret’s ghost is exacting revenge against them. Of course, there’s a much more mundane answer than that, as Renisenb, her grandmother Esa, and the family scribe Hori slowly piece together the clues to unmask the real murderer.
My Reaction: I found this book to be very difficult to get into. First of all, the names were so strange that it was nearly impossible to all the characters straight. I realize Christie was going for authenticity here, and that it wouldn’t do to have characters in ancient Egypt sporting the names Bob and Mary, but still. I almost ended up having to write down all the characters’ names and relationships to each other — and probably would have done so had I been more interested in the story.
As I said above, the only thing that differentiates this novel from the rest of Christie’s works is the setting. Otherwise, we still have a murder (or five) in an upper-class family, and a limited suspect pool to choose from — one that inevitably shrinks as each new murder is committed. In typical Christie fashion, the author leads readers to believe that a certain character is the murderer, only to have that person killed off next, leaving the reader even more bewildered than before.
The more I read of Death Comes as the End, the more I started to like it. I especially appreciated all the details of life in ancient Egypt that Christie included, such as what people ate or drank, how families were structured, and what the burial rites were like.
Overall, Death Comes as the End turned out to be a pretty good read. If you can stick with the book long enough to get past the slow start, I think you’ll end up enjoying it!
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