Death Comes as the End

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Emilia Fox

Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

It is Egypt in 2000 BC, where death gives meaning to life. At the foot of a cliff lies the broken, twisted body of Nofret, concubine to a ka-priest. Young, beautiful, and venomous, most agree that it was fate - she deserved to die like a snake!

But at her father's house on the banks of the Nile, the priest's daughter Renisenb believes that the woman's death is suspicious. Increasingly, she becomes convinced that the source of evil lurks within their household - and watches helplessly as the family's passions explode in murder.

©1945 Agatha Christie Limited (P)2004 HarperCollins Publishers

Classic Christie with an authentic Egyptian twist

What made the experience of listening to Death Comes as the End the most enjoyable?

Christie gets the details of Egyptian life right! From Ka priests, to the names of people, to the descriptions of life on the Nile, she really did her research here.

After listening to this, I also found out that her husband was an Egyptologist, so I guess that helped =)

Entertaining and Instructive!

I'm a huge fan of Christie's cozy mysteries set in the 1920s and 1930s, so hesitated before purchasing a mystery set in the distant past. However, I'm also really interested in Egyptology and was curious.

I soon found myself completely engrossed and looking forward to repetitive tasks like doing the dishes so I could steal time to listen.

Constructing an engaging story with well defined characters is enough of a challenge, but doing it while also reconstructing an ancient civilization with historical accuracy is quite a feat. Christie succeeds beautifully. I have a better sense of daily life after having read it.

Kudos to Emilia Fox for her ability to interpret the characters and make each unique.

Well done.

What made the experience of listening to Death Comes as the End the most enjoyable?

Well presented and overall good story. It's hard to have a poor Christie story.

Twists and turns

Not one of her more well-known stories, and very contained in a the smaller enclosed Egyptian household. Good for passing the time when you need a book.

Ancient Egypt + murder

This is the first AC book I’ve read in years that was not a reread for me. It was fun to hear new characters and have an entirely new (to me) plot line from the Queen of Crime.

I gave the story 4 stars. I really enjoyed it, but whether through reading too many Agatha’s, or whether the writing was not as good; I guessed the murderer by the second death. 😅 That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I did feel it was kind of obvious who the killer was.
Still, I highly Rex come down for fans of AC!

Enjoyable Christie story, good narration by Fox

I read in a Christie biography or somewhere that Christie wrote this book after a challenge from one of her husband's colleagues to write a mystery set in ancient Egypt. The piece I read stated that it wasn't her best book, but she did a very good job with the historical backdrop. It may have not been her best, but I enjoyed it a lot. I was pretty sure I knew who the murderer was, but she threw in some red herrings that had me successfully confused. Emilia Fox did a good job with the narration and the character voices.

A Good Christie novel

This is not her best novel, this isn't her worst novel, but the world she crafted is interesting if not quite historically accurate. this mystery is good, it held my interest to the end.

Amazing listen

Emilia Fox outdid herself with this performance. Simply outstanding job and captivating story. Agatha was a genius.

Very different Christie

I’ve come to expect most of Agatha Christie’s books to have a very similar setting. This is quite different. I don’t think I would go so far as to call it historical fiction. It is just set in Egypt on a farm in ancient times. I would say that the most fun part is that you really never pin down who done it until the final reveal. I did start to get bored at the beginning. Maybe my mind just wanted a regular Agatha Christie mystery. I did not end disappointed. Also if you are at all interested in the author herself, she reveals herself in little ways throughout her books. I believe this novel adds a layer to that description. I often find her in her heroines.

Death on the Ancient Nile

Think of Agatha Christie and what do you think of? Poirot and Marple? Death and mysteries in quaint English villages or exotic locales? You'd be right, of course, at least to a large extent. But that would also be to overlook other parts of her output. Something that would include 1944's Death Comes as the End, set in Ancient Egypt and a curious piece of the Christie bibliography.

True, there's the lack of an obvious detective character, with Renisenb, daughter of a priest, taking their place to an extent. Indeed, Renisenb falls into the Christie tradition of reluctant heroine investigators as her family falls prey to a series of deaths following the death of her father's concubine amidst family drama. But it's how the mechanics of the deaths play out in a time and place without modern detection or forensics that makes it a fascinating experience. Reason and logic versus superstition, modernity (for its time) against tradition. All played out across the backdrop of an ancient civilization and death among family members. It's classic Christie, to say the very least. Not to mention well-realized in this audiobook version with Emilia Fox bringing to life not only the vast cast of characters but Christie's vividly painted portrait of an ancient civilization.

If you're a fan of Christie or someone seeking something outside of her "norm," than Death Comes as the End is a must-listen.