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A character in Death on the Nile

Jacqueline de Bellefort

The friend Linnet betrayed, who follows the honeymoon across Egypt with a pearl-handled pistol in her bag.

What they want

Simon. She says so, and nothing in the book contradicts her.

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
Linnet's former friend; Simon's former fiancée
Where she appears
Throughout

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Jacqueline is small, dark, poor and fierce. She loved Simon Doyle and asked her rich friend to give him a job; the rich friend married him. Since then she has appeared at every hotel on their honeymoon, saying nothing, simply being there. Poirot, who meets her on the terrace at Aswan, finds her the most alive person in the book, and so does the reader.

She tells Poirot what she has imagined doing to Simon and Linnet and shows him the pistol she bought as a girl. She drinks too much on the Karnak, and in the saloon she fires the pistol in front of witnesses. From then on she is watched, sedated and never alone, which is the alibi the book has built for her.

How Jacqueline de Bellefort Is Portrayed

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

  • The sizeSmall and dark, with a quick way of moving; Poirot thinks of a tightly wound spring.
  • The pistolA tiny pearl-handled thing bought years ago, shown to Poirot on the terrace.
  • The followingVenice, Brindisi, Cairo, Aswan: she is at every stop, sitting where the Doyles will see her.
  • The terraceShe hears Poirot out, and answers that it is too late to turn back.
  • The saloonDrunk, furious, and firing; then hysterical, and taken to her cabin by Cornelia and Fanthorp.
  • The nurseMiss Bowers sits with her all night, which puts her beyond suspicion.
Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Jacqueline planned Linnet's murder with Simon and gave him his alibi by shooting at him in public and missing. She killed Louise Bourget with a scalpel and Salome Otterbourne with Pennington's pistol to protect him. At Shellal she shoots Simon and then herself with a second pistol Poirot knew she had.

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