The place is Thebes, the year is 2000 B.C. and the bodies are piling up! Death Comes as the End is an Agatha Christie mystery set in ancient Egypt; it is the only historical mystery Christie wrote, and the only one to feature entirely non-European characters.
The novel kicks off with the family patriarch, Imhotep, returning home to Thebes (modern day Luxor) with a new concubine, Nofret. Nofret, who is decades younger than her new partner, is beautiful but cruel. She quickly antagonizes the rest of Imhotep’s family- his widowed daughter Renisenb, his three sons (Yahmose, Sobek, Ipy) and his daughters-in-law (Satipy and Kait, married respectively to Yahmose and Sobek). Imhotep’s elderly mother, Esa, is also not a Nofret fan, and the self-serving housekeeper, Henet, could be swung either way depending on the advantage it gives her. Rounding out the characters are several servants who are romantically interested in Renisenb- Hori, the loyal and long-serving family scribe and Kameni, a handsome new young scribe who arrived with Nofret.
When Nofret informs Imhotep of how the family has ostracized her during one of his business trips, he sends the family a message indicating his displeasure and threatening consequences on his return. No surprise that Nofret is the first to die mysteriously, but then the bodies really begin to pile up. Which of the many characters, all of which have grievances petty and large against their relations, is responsible? Will Renisenb survive to accept either suitor for a new marriage?
Christie took time to ground this mystery in ancient Egypt and she had good background sources- her second husband was an archaeologist specializing in the middle east. Wikipedia tells me she took the inspiration for her story from real papyrus letters that were uncovered and translated; the priest authoring the letters complained about how his family was treating his new concubine. Christie used this historical starting point and then wove it in with what had been uncovered about the lives of ordinary people. Imhotep was a mid-level ka-priest, which in effect meant he was a small landlord. Fittingly for the family’s livelihood, Christie has her chapter titles follow the Egyptian agricultural calendar.
Our audience stand in is Renisenb, who is a departure from Christie’s usual narrators. She is less intuitive or curious than Poirot or Marple, and it is only rather reluctantly that she eventually begins looking into the multiplying murders. I would definitely recommend this to Christie fans, although I would caution that the mystery feels less cozy, and the narrator doesn’t capture me the way that Poirot does. I really liked the Egyptian setting and historical time frame, and I also appreciated thinking about ancient Egypt as being as rife with family dynamics and nefarious, self-serving actions as any modern work.