Death Comes As The End

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  • Novel
  • 1944

It is Egypt, 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 she deserved to die like a snake. Yet Renisenb, the priest’s daughter, believes that the woman’s death was not fate, but murder. Increasingly, she becomes convinced that the source of evil lurks within her own father’s household. As the wife of an eminent archaeologist, Agatha Christie took part in several expeditions to the Middle East. Drawing upon this experience and exhaustive research, she wrote this serial killer mystery laid in Egypt 4000 years ago.

Courage is the resolution to face the unforeseen.

Agatha Christie, Death Comes as the End

More about this story

Written at the request of her friend, Egyptologist, Stephen Glanville, here Agatha Christie combines her knowledge of archaeology with her knowledge of psychology, revealing the past lives and dramas of people in 2000 BC.

The premise for the story was derived from real Egyptian letters, from a man named Heqanakhte to his family discussing their behaviour and unwelcome response to his concubine. Christie actually changed the ending of the novel on the insistence of Glanville and her publishers and always regretted the decision, certain that her original ending would have been more effective.

The novel is yet to be adapted.

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