105 pages 3 hours read

Agatha Christie

Death On The Nile

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1937

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Chapters 17-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 17 Summary

Race wants to ask Poirot what he means about the “impossible” series of events but refrains from doing so. Instead, the two men agree to question Rosalie, who appears “not...nervous or frightened in any way—merely unwilling and sulky” (241).

Rosalie claims not to have left her cabin all night. When Race confronts her with Miss Van Schuyler’s testimony, she insists it is a lie. Then she asks what time Miss Van Schuyler claims to have seen her, and whether she saw anything else. When Poirot responds that Miss Van Schuyler also heard someone in Linnet’s cabin, Rosalie goes pale; however, she insists that she never threw anything overboard.

Race shows Rosalie the murder weapon, and Rosalie insists that she did not kill Linnet and did not throw the gun overboard. Once she has left, Poirot says that he doubts either Rosalie or Miss Van Schuyler has been completely honest.

Next, the two men question Mrs. Otterbourne, who says she heard nothing during the night and is unsure whether Rosalie left their cabin at any time. After that, they interview Richetti, who is “very voluble, very agitated” (246). He tells them he went to bed immediately after dinner and turned off his light around 11 p.