Poirot - Death on the Nile
Murder Mystery Monday takes us back to early 20th Century London and another case for the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Despite a tighter budget than either of the feature film adaptations, Poirot's adaptation of Death on the Nile is the best of the bunch. Introducing, then quickly dispensing with, the the superfluous early bits of the story, the double-sized episode gets us to Egypt in less than 6 minutes, gets us on the boat in less than 20, and gets us to the fateful night where murder and shenanigans start occurring prior to the halfway-point of the episode allowing the majority of time to be set aside for Poirot (David Suchet) to solve a case where the two most obvious suspects have iron-clad alibis for the crime.
Following the plot of the novel, the story involves Poirot on an Egyptian steamer along with other passengers including wealthy heiress Linnet Ridgeway (Emily Blunt) and her new husband Simon Doyle (JJ Feild) whom she stole from her former best friend Jacqueline de Bellefort (Emma Griffiths Malin). Jacqueline has subsequently stalked the pair around the world attempting to ruin their holiday. Prior to boarding the boat, and witnessing the bad blood in person, Poirot attempts to offer some words of wisdom and solace to Jacqueline (although those fall on deaf ears). On the fateful night, a drunk Jacqueline shoots Simon, and, with both being sequestered and watched over, Linnet is also killed.
There are other suspects with motive, but everything traces back to these three individuals and a crime far more calculated than Poirot first suspects. Although he refuses Linnet's attempt to hire him, Poirot does make an honest attempt at help Jacqueline and attempt to redirect her off her self-destructive path. Poirot's compassion for the young woman adds more weight to the reveal as Poirot puts the pieces together revealing the staged events involving an extra shot, a paint-soaked handkerchief, and the equally-calculated murders that follow in attempt to hide the truth of Linnet's death. For those interested in seeing the events of the novel dramatized, this is the version I would recommend.
- Title: Poirot - Death on the Nile
- IMDb: link
