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A character in Death on the Nile

Rosalie Otterbourne

The novelist's sullen daughter, seen throwing something into the Nile in the night.

What they want

To keep her mother's drinking from the world, and to be let alone.

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.

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At a glance

In the book
Salome Otterbourne's daughter
Where she appears
Throughout

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Rosalie is rude to everyone, refuses to say where she was on the night of the murder, and was seen at the rail dropping something into the river. She is protecting her mother, not herself, and Poirot works that out before she tells him. Tim Allerton, who has secrets of his own, is the one person on board she can talk to.

How Rosalie Otterbourne Is Portrayed

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

  • The mannerShort answers and a sulky face; Poirot says she is the unhappiest girl on the boat.
  • The railSeen dropping bottles into the Nile at night, and refusing to explain.
  • The motherEvery scene with Salome shows Rosalie steering her away from a glass.
  • Tim AllertonThe one passenger she softens for, and the one whose confession she keeps.
Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Rosalie was throwing away her mother's hidden bottles. She saw Tim Allerton on deck that night and says nothing, and at the end she goes to him.

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