Customer Reviews

Death Comes As the End

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DEATH COMES AS THE END is a true Christie curiosity. Inspired by both her archeologist husband and then-recent archeological finds, Christie sets her tale of murder and mayhem in ancient Egypt. Even so, the story remains pure Christie: a long widowed landowner brings the beautiful young woman with whom he has fallen in love to his home--and she quickly upsets the household by manipulating a series of confrontations that so enrage her lover that he threatens to disinherit his children in her favor. Needless to say, murder is not far behind, and one death leads to another and another in what must be one of the highest body counts in any Christie novel.

Although Christie spins her tale with considerable historical authority and aplomb, her extremely English tone of voice does not entirely suit her setting, and in this instance the solution to the crimes is actually on the obvious side. Ultimately, DEATH COMES AS THE END is more of an interesting experiment than it is a successful novel and cannot be ranked as among her most successful works--but it is expertly written, and established fans of her work will have a good time with it.

Agatha Christie has a complete change of pace as she takes the reader to ancient Egypt for this exciting tour de force. It might seem an unusual step for a writer who specialized in 20th century murder set in cozy English villages, but all the passions that lead to murder---jealousy, envy, greed, love, hate---are apparently timeless. Christie's research was painstaking and she is able to give us the exact details of this ancient life down to the type of food they ate and the type of clothes they wore. One of the most amazing things to me was that she was able to make these characters so realistic even though they are living in a time and under circumstances so foreign to the reader.

The plot centers on multiple murders involving members of the family of Imhotep, a well-to-do religious leader in Thebes around 2000 BC.

This novel is her most unique, but it has the same brilliant plotting and satisfying ending that all her others have.

Life on the estate of the ka-priest Imhotep doesn't seem to have changed at all in the eight years of Renisenb's marriage; returning to her father's house upon her husband's death, its stability comforts her, even though it isn't entirely peaceful. But how much of the impression of changelessness is wishful thinking?

Her eldest brother, Yahmose, gentle, conscientious, reliable, is still henpecked by his strident wife Satipy, urging him to demand that Imhotep create a legal agreement giving Yahmose formal administrative status. The middle brother, Sobek, is a womanizer given to high living, who fancies himself a great man; his wife, Kait, may seem solid and stupid, but she's devoted to her children, and won't let him abandon their heritage however piqued he is with his father. Young Ipy, at sixteen, is no longer a pretty sight after being spoiled for so long.

Then middle-aged Imhotep returns from a trip to Memphis and puts a cat among the pigeons: he introduces his new 19-year-old concubine, Nofret. She's unhappy at being tied to this fussy old tyrant on his backwater estate, after Memphis, but works to ensnare his affection - and facing the family's hostile reaction (except the amusement of Imhotep's aged mother, Esa), begins undermining them with him. (Christie gradually, skillfully illuminates Nofret's character; she's no cardboard evil temptress, and not really evil at all.)

During another of Imhotep's trips, the cold war between Satipy, Kait, and Nofret comes to a head when Kait slaps Nofret - who then reports the truth and nothing but the truth in a letter to Imhotep, supported by testimony from the staff. Imhotep's reply falls like a boulder into a pool: Yahmose and Sobek are to be disinherited, while Imhotep will marry his concubine. But soon after the message arrives, Nofret is found dead, fallen from the cliff path near the tomb (the entire estate is an endowment, supporting the family in exchange for their maintenance of the tomb, hence Imhotep's job description as a ka-priest).

This isn't a group of modern people set in an Egyptian background; the different culture is apparent. (Christie's 2nd husband, of course, was the archeologist Max Mallowan). The family (regardless of their suspicions) is content for this first death to pass as an accident, but as the death toll rises, some attribute it to Nofret's angry ghost while others, including Renisenb, wise old grandmother Esa, and the steward, Hori, look for a more immediate agent. (I believe I counted 8 deaths - I won't say if they were all murders - through the course of the book.)

A novel in ancient Egypt, when well written, is always a pleasure, and Christie (particularly when not hogtied by formulae required by some of her more famous characters) is of course great at designing puzzles with human touches. The combination here is very good.

This book allows Christie to draw on her considerable archaeological knowledge based on her experiences on digs with her archaeologist (second) husband. The setting is an intriguing change from her usual. However, I found the plotting in this one to be a little thin. I rarely figure out Christie's culprits in advance, but I saw right through this one. Read it for an interesting change of pace, but don't expect to be deceived.

I began this book, but found it slow going. I got as far as the first murder and was going to stop reading. Then I looked up the reviews here and saw the "fun" had just begun. Once it got going it was hard to put down.

It was so different than the usual setting and cast of characters. I did not guess the bad guy at all, but found the end satisfying.

This is not the book that Agatha Christie wrote. What "improvements" have been made for the Bantam edition? There were already major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins and Dodd Mead editions of this novel. There are further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. There are further additions still in the Signet, Berkley, and Black Dog & Leventhal editions. For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.

This novel is a departure for Christie -- instead of the usual British cozy, it's a mystery set in ancient Egypt. But despite the exotic setting, many of the cozy elements are still there -- family discord, finger pointing, and bodies piling up like cordwood.

In Thebes, around 2000 BC, Imhotep the wealthy Ka-priest is master of all he surveys -- or so he thinks. His three sons, one daughter and two daughters-in-law obey his commands, though not, in some cases, without some grumbling behind the scenes. All appears to be relatively well, at least on the surface, when Imhotep, long a widower, brings home a beautiful concubine, Nofret, and sets the cat amongst the pigeons. Nofret is arrogant and contemptuous of Imhotep's family, and Imhotep, besotted with his new plaything, takes her part. When she turns up dead at the bottom of a cliff, there's a general agreement by everyone but Imhotep that it's good riddance. But did she fall or was she pushed?

Stressed by this new development, family members turn on each other, and their old servant Henet loudly proclaims her loyalty to first one and then the other, enjoying the fireworks that result. When more people in the household die, suspicions fall on first one person, then another. Through it all, Renisenb, Imhotep's beloved daughter, tries to find the culprit while preserving her own safety and sanity. Who can she trust?

I found this a thoroughly satisfying mystery, written in a straightforward style but with enough red herrings to fill a fish barrel. I didn't guess the villain before the end, which made this a successful mystery for me. Fans of ancient Egypt will enjoy this, but it's suitable for anyone who loves a good mystery with lots of twists and turns. Vintage Christie, but a 4,000-year-old vintage that adds a bit of Middle Eastern spice.

It's wrong. The British accent in the Egyptian setting doesn't work. The story is long and tedious. The protagonist learns nothing during the entire book and in the end it all has to be explained to her, like a child. I am sorry I purchased this item, and the reviews I glanced at made it sound so intriguing. In fact, it is dull. I am a HUGE Christie fan, and I'd say she deserves a miss once in a while. This is a big miss.

And now for something completely different from Agatha Christie. A radical departure from the rest of her body of work, which were all set in what was (for her) a contemporary time period (between the 1930s to the 1960s), "Death Comes as the End" is set in Ancient Egypt in 2000BC. Christie's appreciation for Egyptian culture was due to her archeological husband, and the book's main conflict is based on real letters dating from the XI dynasty from a man called Heqanakhte to his family, complaining about their treatment of his concubine.

After her husband's death Renisenb returns to her father's house, comforted by the familiarity of her childhood surroundings and the people she has known for years: her elderly father, her three older brothers, her bickering sister-in-laws, her mischievous grandmother, and the loyal family servants. Things seem very much the same as usual, with her brothers Yahmose, Sobek and Ipy feuding for their father's attention and their wives Satipy and Kait vying on their husbands and children's behalf.

Away from these domestic affairs, Renisenb is happy to look out over the River Nile and enjoy the peace of the world laid out before her. But upheaval comes with the arrival of her father Imhotep and his new concubine, the beautiful and snake-like Nofret. Installing her in his household, Nofret instantly causes trouble amongst the family - jealousy, bitterness, suspicion and resentment follow in her wake as she effortlessly manipulates the household against each other and eventually organizes the disinheritance of Imhotep's three sons in her favor.

It comes as little surprise then, when her body is found broken at the foot of a cliff. This would seem to be the end of the discordance in the house, but the body count is only just beginning! Renisenb is a helpless witness to the tragedies that unfold around her, unsure whether they are the work of Nofret's vengeful spirit or a flesh-and-blood murderer.

Despite the exotic setting, one can't help but be amused at recognizing the unmistakable facets of a Christie mystery - though there isn't a quaint English village or a quirky detective in sight, there is a country house, a dysfunctional family, plenty of plot twists and red herrings, and a deep interest in human psychology. As it turns out, people who lived thousands of years ago are not drastically different from those who commit crimes today, and all the petty jealousies and familial squabbling found here could easily be transposed into any of her other novels with little need for alteration.

Imhotep may be a ka-priest responsible for the funeral rites of the dead, but he's also a fussy old despot, feeling harassed and persecuted by his own family. Then there's the henpecked husband, the arrogant womanizer, the shrewish wife, the devoted mother, the ingratiating servant - anyone would feel right at home in any Christie mystery. Also notable is the fact that this is by no means a historical mystery. Though she has clearly taken pains to make it as authentic as possible, she avoids the usual trap of providing piles of expository information on the time period. You won't come away from this novel with a deeper understanding of Egyptian culture - this is a classic murder mystery, not an in-depth look at Ancient Egypt.

Renisenb unfortunately is a little dry as a protagonist, and it is her love interest and her grandmother that do most of the sleuthing. In comparison, she is rather passive and seems to be just as concerned with her romantic subplot as she is with the very high death toll that surrounds her. Best described as a Christie curiosity, "Death Comes as the End" cannot be described as one of Christie's best - despite the exotic setting, it still manages to be rather formulaic with a solution that is brought about more by the process of elimination than actual detective work - but it is a fascinating change of pace for Christie aficionados.

This was a light and enjoyable read. However, it seemed to be populated by a cast of Englishmen who just happened to be living in Ancient Egypt. I feel that it could have been much more interesting if Ms. Christie had made the effort to create more believable characters.