Golden Age of Detective Fiction

“A Death on the Nile” is a Parker Pyne short story that was originally published in 1933 in Cosmopolitan Magazine. That same year, it was reprinted in the collection anthology Parker Pyne Investigates. “A Death on the Nile” appears again in the 2021 short story collection Midsummer Mysteries.

Plot Synopsis

“A Death on the Nile”, a distinct work from Agatha Christie’s more famous entire-length novel starring Hercule Poirot, starts with Pyne’s attempt to unwind on a river cruise down the Nile from Aswan to Cairo.

However, his peaceful vacation is abruptly shattered when the Grayle family and Lady Grayle’s paid companion join him on the cruise. Lady Grayle is a strident and domineering woman who incessantly complains about sharing the small boat with another passenger.

However, when she learns that Pyne is a private investigator, she corners Pyne and asks him to investigate her husband. Lord Grayle, because she believes he is poisoning her. For several months, while her husband is at their country home, she has been getting terrible bouts of stomach pains and severe illness, which disappears when he is gone, and the attacks of the disease subside completely.

Soon after employing Pyne, Lady Grayle is found dead in her room, and there’s overwhelming suspicion against her husband. However, a small scrap of paper indicates that Lady Grayle might have been poisoning herself.

Did Lord Grayle kill his wife? Did Lady Grayle kill herself and try to frame her husband for murder? Is her paid companion the one who shares Lady Grayle’s suspicions about her Lord Grayle using him as a scapegoat? Or is the killer one of Lady Grayle’s unhappy relations who wants to get rid of the old dragon to have unfettered access to her wealth?

The Review

“A Death on the Nile”, written three years before the iconic Death on the Nile, shares a similar setting and murder. Still, they are distinctly different in atmosphere and tone due to Pyne’s more caustic and indifferent attitude.

Murder is usually outside the scope of Pyne’s investigations, and he takes on the case out of a sense of obligation to Lady Grayle and duty: who wants to vacation with a murderer on the loose, not because he has any real philosophical objection to murder a’la Poirot?

Pyne’s attitude about finding Mrs. Grayle’s killer is one of annoyance. He begrudgingly interviews all of the suspects, pieces together a timeline, and sardonically pierces alibis. In the end, he quips to the murderer.

“A confession would be best. Just write it out, will you?” 

Pyne is flippant, funny, and exasperated the whole time, which is quite amusing to read. This contrasts the other characters, who are arch, conniving, secretive, and running amok on the ship, concocting ridiculous alibis and throwing suspicion on each other to keep all the other petty misdeeds under wraps.

There are several good suspects, and the motive is that Lady Grayle was an old battle-ax who loved lording her power and wealth over her family, causing unhappiness in her offspring, which is incredibly potent. They all hate her, but who hated her enough to kill her and had the psychological makeup to do the deed?

It’s not the most inventive story, but good, stolid characters and a hefty motive provide a different type of investigation for the often enigmatic and underutilized Parker Pyne.

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Midsummer Mysteries Short Story Reviews

Story #1: The Blood-Stained Pavement

Story #2: The Double Clue