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A review by thaurisil
Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie
4.0
While I read through Agatha Christie's novels with the Appointments with Agatha group, I'm putting a templated synopsis of each novel in my review. It has spoilers!
Book: 35 of Christie's novels
Setting: Ancient Egypt
Detective and Companions: Renisenb, Hori
Crime: Renisenb's father and mortuary priest, Imhotep, brings home a young, haughty concubine, Nofret. She dies, and then others in the family die as well.
Suspects:
- Henet, the obsequious housekeeper
- Esa, Imhotep's mother
- Yahmose, Imhotep's eldest son
- Sobek, Imhotep's second son
- Ipy, Imhotep's youngest son
- Satipy, Yahmose's wife
- Kait, Sobek's wife
- Kameni, a scribe from the North
Twists and Turns:
- Of all the people in the household, Yahmose seems the most unlikely killer as he is gentle and timid. But the timidity conceals a desire for power that leads him to kill almost all the members of his family.
- When Satipy dies, it is thought that she was the killer and, haunted and frightened by Nofret's ghost, she falls off a cliff to her death. But it was actually the murderous look in Yahmose's eyes that made her take a step back and fall.
- Yahmose was mildly poisoned by the same poisoned wine that killed Sobek, hence he was thought to be a victim. But he had cleverly taken sips of the wine so that he would be ill but would not die.
- As more members of the family die, the motives do not seem clear. Some, like Esa and Henet, clearly die because they know who the murderer is. But the deaths of Sobek and Ipy are not as clear, until it is realised that Yahmose resented them being cleverer and more confident than him.
This is Agatha Christie's only historical fiction. The inspiration for and source of information about ancient Egypt came from her friend, Stephen Glanville, and presumably from her archaeologist husband. It's not an entirely successful attempt – although the customs and language of ancient Egypt are used, the characters resemble Christie's usual British characters.
Unlike other Christie books which usually contain a fair dose of humour, this book is almost entirely dark. There is a shocking number of deaths, and there is a constant tension due to the hatred and resentment that several of the characters bear against each other, and the fear that each of them has knowing that anyone could be killed next.
Of course, there is a romance. Renisenb's father and grandmother decide that she should be married off to Kameni, the gay, laughing scribe, and Renisenb, still mourning her dead husband Khay and caught up in the tension and fear of the situation, believes that she loves Kameni. But it is clear that she actually loves Hori, the scribe whose calm and resoluteness gives Renisenb peace.
Hori says that "the rottenness comes from within". The line is re-visited several times, and its truth becomes apparent when Hori outlines how the change brought about by Nofret revealed the hidden wickedness within several members of the family – Yahmose's desire for power, Satipy's cowardliness, Sobek's dissipation, and Kait's selfishness. It gave me food for thought about what hidden sins we may allow to manifest within our souls if we are not careful to guard our hearts.
Book: 35 of Christie's novels
Setting: Ancient Egypt
Detective and Companions: Renisenb, Hori
Crime: Renisenb's father and mortuary priest, Imhotep, brings home a young, haughty concubine, Nofret. She dies, and then others in the family die as well.
Suspects:
- Henet, the obsequious housekeeper
- Esa, Imhotep's mother
- Yahmose, Imhotep's eldest son
- Sobek, Imhotep's second son
- Ipy, Imhotep's youngest son
- Satipy, Yahmose's wife
- Kait, Sobek's wife
- Kameni, a scribe from the North
Twists and Turns:
- Of all the people in the household, Yahmose seems the most unlikely killer as he is gentle and timid. But the timidity conceals a desire for power that leads him to kill almost all the members of his family.
- When Satipy dies, it is thought that she was the killer and, haunted and frightened by Nofret's ghost, she falls off a cliff to her death. But it was actually the murderous look in Yahmose's eyes that made her take a step back and fall.
- Yahmose was mildly poisoned by the same poisoned wine that killed Sobek, hence he was thought to be a victim. But he had cleverly taken sips of the wine so that he would be ill but would not die.
- As more members of the family die, the motives do not seem clear. Some, like Esa and Henet, clearly die because they know who the murderer is. But the deaths of Sobek and Ipy are not as clear, until it is realised that Yahmose resented them being cleverer and more confident than him.
This is Agatha Christie's only historical fiction. The inspiration for and source of information about ancient Egypt came from her friend, Stephen Glanville, and presumably from her archaeologist husband. It's not an entirely successful attempt – although the customs and language of ancient Egypt are used, the characters resemble Christie's usual British characters.
Unlike other Christie books which usually contain a fair dose of humour, this book is almost entirely dark. There is a shocking number of deaths, and there is a constant tension due to the hatred and resentment that several of the characters bear against each other, and the fear that each of them has knowing that anyone could be killed next.
Of course, there is a romance. Renisenb's father and grandmother decide that she should be married off to Kameni, the gay, laughing scribe, and Renisenb, still mourning her dead husband Khay and caught up in the tension and fear of the situation, believes that she loves Kameni. But it is clear that she actually loves Hori, the scribe whose calm and resoluteness gives Renisenb peace.
Hori says that "the rottenness comes from within". The line is re-visited several times, and its truth becomes apparent when Hori outlines how the change brought about by Nofret revealed the hidden wickedness within several members of the family – Yahmose's desire for power, Satipy's cowardliness, Sobek's dissipation, and Kait's selfishness. It gave me food for thought about what hidden sins we may allow to manifest within our souls if we are not careful to guard our hearts.