"Connie Willis - Death on the Nile" - читать интересную книгу автора (Willis Connie)

I canтАЩt take any more of this. I reach for my bag, which is still under the window seat, and pull out my
paperback of Agatha ChristieтАЩs Death on the Nile. I bought it in Athens.

тАЬAbout like death anywhere,тАЭ ZoeтАЩs husband said when I got back to our hotel in Athens with it.
тАЬWhat?тАЭ I said.

тАЬYour book,тАЭ he said, pointing at the paperback and smiling as if heтАЩd made a joke. тАЬThe title. IтАЩd
imagine death on the Nile is the same as death anywhere.тАЭ тАЬWhich is what?тАЭ I asked.

тАЬThe Egyptians believed death was very similar to life,тАЭ Zoe cut in. She had bought Egypt Made Easy at
the same bookstore. тАЬTo the ancient Egyptians the afterworld was a place much like the world they
inhabited. It was presided over by Anubis, who judged the deceased and determined their fates. Our
concepts of heaven and hell and of the Day of Judgment are nothing more than modern refinements of
Egyptian ideas,тАЭ she said, and began reading out loud from Egypt Made Easy, which pretty much put an
end to our conversation,

and I still donтАЩt know what ZoeтАЩs husband thought death would be like, on the Nile or elsewhere.

I open Death on the Nile and try to read, thinking maybe Hercule Poirot knows, but the flight is too
bumpy. I feel almost immediately queasy, and after half a page and three more lurches I put it in the seat
pocket, close my eyes, and toy with the idea of murdering another. ItтАЩs a perfect Agatha Christie setting.
She always has a few people in a country house or on an island. In Death on the Nile they were on a Nile
steamer, but the plane is even better. The only other people on it are the flight attendants and a Japanese
tour group who apparently do not speak English or they would be clustered around Zoe, asking
directions to the Sphinx.

The turbulence lessens a little, and I open my eyes and reach for my book again. Lissa has it.

SheтАЩs holding it open, but she isnтАЩt reading it. She is watching me, waiting for me to notice, waiting for
me to say something. Neil looks nervous.

тАЬYou were done with this, werenтАЩt you?тАЭ she says, smiling. тАЬYou werenтАЩt reading it.тАЭ

Everyone has a motive for murder in an Agatha Christie. And LissaтАЩs husband has been drinking
steadily since Paris, and ZoeтАЩs husband never gets to finish a sentence. The police might think he had

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 Death on the Nile

snapped suddenly. Or that it was Zoe he had tried to kill and shot Lissa by mistake. And there is no
Hercule Poirot on board to tell them who really committed the murder, to solve the mystery and explain
all the strange happenings.

The plane pitches suddenly, so hard Zoe drops her guidebook, and we plunge a good five thousand feet
before it recovers. The guidebook has slid forward several rows, and Zoe tries to reach for it with her
foot, fails, and looks up at the seat-belt sign as if she expects it to go off so she can get out of her seat to
retrieve it.

Not after that drop, I think, but the seat-belt sign pings almost immediately and goes off.