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A character in Death on the Nile

Hercule Poirot

The retired Belgian detective on holiday, who warns a young woman on a hotel terrace and then has to watch what she does with the warning.

What they want

To be left in peace, and then, once he cannot be, to understand exactly what happened and who chose it.

The book

Death on the NileAgatha Christie, 1937

An heiress, her new husband and the friend she took him from, on a Nile steamer with nowhere to go but the next temple.

View the book

At a glance

In the book
The detective, a passenger on the Karnak
Home
London, by way of Brussels
Where he appears
From Chapter 2 to the last page

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Poirot is in Egypt on holiday, in a white suit and a panama hat, and has no wish to work. Linnet Doyle asks him to stop Jacqueline de Bellefort following her, and he refuses, because Jacqueline is breaking no law. He speaks to Jacqueline instead, on the terrace at Aswan, and tells her to go home before she does something she cannot undo. That conversation is the book's centre, and it happens before a single crime.

He is Belgian, a retired officer of the Brussels police, and he corrects anyone who calls him French. On the Karnak he works with Colonel Race, an old friend, and the two of them question the boat cabin by cabin. His method is stated plainly to Race late in the book: look for the facts that will not fit.

How Hercule Poirot Is Portrayed

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • The holidayWhite suit, panama hat, and an intention to see the temples and nothing else.
  • The refusalHe will not act for Linnet against Jacqueline; she has committed no crime.
  • The terraceHe tells Jacqueline not to open her heart to evil, and she tells him it is too late.
  • The nail polishA bottle labelled Rose that holds a darker red; he notices that the name does not match the colour.
  • The methodFacts that will not fit are the ones that matter, he tells Race, and lists them.
  • The pistol he does not look forAt the end he lets Jacqueline keep what she has in her handbag.

Hercule Poirot quotes

Lines spoken by or about Hercule Poirot, each verified verbatim against the text and located in the book.

It is always the facts that will not fit in that are significant.
— Hercule Poirot (dialogue) · Agatha Christie, Death on the Nile (1937), Chapter 24
Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Poirot works out that Simon and Jacqueline did it together and tells them so. He does not have Jacqueline searched, knowing she has a second pistol, and she uses it on Simon and herself at Shellal. Race asks him if he knew. He says yes.

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