Death on the Nile

Successful socialite Linnet Doyle (née Ridgeway) approaches Hercule Poirot while he is vacationing in Aswan to board the steamer Karnak, which will tour along the Nile River from Shellal to Wadi Halfa. She wants to commission him to deter her former friend Jacqueline de Bellefort from hounding and stalking her. Linnet had recently married Jacqueline's ex-fiancé, Simon Doyle, which has made Jacqueline bitterly resentful. Poirot refuses the commission but nevertheless unsuccessfully attempts to dissuade Jacqueline from pursuing her plans. Simon and Linnet secretly follow Poirot to escape Jacqueline but find she has learned of their plans and boarded ahead of them.

While visiting Abu Simbel, when Karnak stops there, Linnet narrowly avoids being crushed to death by a large boulder that falls from a cliff. Jacqueline is suspected of pushing the boulder off the cliff, but she was aboard the steamer at the time of the incident. At Wadi Halfa, Poirot's friend Colonel Race boards the steamer for the return trip. Race tells Poirot that he seeks a murderer among the passengers.

Jacqueline expresses her bitterness toward Simon the next night in the steamer's lounge. She shoots him in the leg with a pistol while furious, but immediately feels regret and kicks the gun away. The two other people present, Fanthorp and Cornelia, take her to her cabin. Simon is shortly brought to Dr Bessner's cabin for treatment for his injury. Fanthorp looks for Jacqueline's pistol but reports that it has disappeared. The following morning, Linnet is found dead, shot in the head, while her valuable string of pearls has disappeared. Jacqueline's pistol is recovered from the Nile, wrapped in a velvet stole that Miss Van Schuyler had reported missing the day before. Two shots have been fired from the pistol.

While interviewing Louise in the cabin where Simon is resting, Poirot notes the oddness in the words she uses. Miss Bowers returns Linnet's pearl necklace, which Miss Van Schuyler, a kleptomaniac, stole. However, Poirot realises it merely imitates Linnet's genuine necklace. He notes two nail polish bottles in the victim's room, one of which intrigues him. Louise is then found stabbed to death in her cabin. Mrs Otterbourne later meets with Poirot and Colonel Race in Simon's cabin, claiming she saw who killed the maid, to which Simon declares his surprise. Before revealing who it is, she is shot dead from outside the cabin.

Poirot soon confronts Pennington over his attempted murder of Linnet by pushing the boulder off the cliff; Pennington had speculated unsuccessfully with her inheritance and came to Egypt upon learning of her marriage to trick her into signing documents that would exonerate him. However, he claims he did not murder anyone despite his revolver being used in Mrs Otterbourne's murder. Poirot recovers Linnet's genuine pearls from Tim, whom he exposes as a professional thief. Tim had substituted an imitation string of pearls for the genuine necklace. Colonel Race realises Richetti is the man he is looking for.

Poirot tells Colonel Race, Dr Bessner, and Cornelia that Simon killed Linnet. Jacqueline planned the murder; the pair are still lovers. Linnet had deliberately and unashamedly tried to take Simon away from Jacqueline, and Simon decided to go along with it so he could murder her for her money later. Afraid of Simon being caught and executed, Jacqueline concocted what she thought was a foolproof plan. On the night of the murder, Jacqueline deliberately missed Simon, who faked his leg injury with red ink. Jacqueline diverted Fanthorp and Cornelia, whilst Simon took the pistol, went to Linnet's cabin, and shot her. He placed the nail polish bottle that had contained the red ink on Linnet's washstand, then returned to the lounge and shot himself in the leg. Simon used the stole to silence the pistol, loaded a spare cartridge to make it seem that only two shots were fired, and threw the gun overboard.

Louise had witnessed Simon entering Linnet's cabin that night and hinted at this to Simon when Poirot was interviewing her, planning to blackmail him. Jacqueline, again in an attempt to protect her lover, stabbed Louise to death. Mrs Otterbourne saw Jacqueline entering Louise's cabin; when she went to tell Poirot, Simon had raised his voice to alert Jacqueline in the next room. She immediately shot and killed Otterbourne before the truth could be revealed. Poirot confronts Simon, who confesses. He is arrested, as are Jacqueline and Richetti. As the steamer arrives back in Shellal and the passengers disembark, Jacqueline shoots Simon and herself with another pistol so they may escape the gallows. When pressed, Poirot reveals he had always known she had a second pistol but had chosen to allow her to take her own life.