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DEATH COMES AS THE END by Agatha Christie is a groundbreaking historical mystery set in ancient Egypt. When a wealthy patriarch’s death sparks a series of murders within his family, suspicion and secrets abound. It’s the first full-length historical whodunit.
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Dr. Nicky Nielsen is a Senior Lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Manchester. Originally from Denmark, he was awarded an AHRC Block Grant to undertake PhD research at the University of Liverpool, investigating subsistence strategies and craft production at the Ramesside fortress site of Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham. He obtained his PhD in 2016.
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Read his article Agatha Christie: World’s First Historical Whodunnit Was Inspired by 4,000 Year‑Old Letters
Author’s Note on Death Comes as the End
“The action of this book takes place on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes in Egypt about 2000 B.C. Both places and time are incidental to the story. Any other place at any other time would have served as well, but it so happened that the inspiration of both characters and plot was derived from two or three Egyptian letters of the XIth Dynasty, found during the 1920-1921 season by the Egyptian Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in a rock tomb opposite Luxor, and translated by Professor Battiscombe Gunn in the Museum’s Bulletin.
“It may be of interest to the reader to note that an endowment for ka-service–an everyday feature of ancient Egyptian civilization–was very similar in principle to a medieval chantry bequest. Property was bequeathed to the ka-priest, in return for which he was expected to maintain the tomb of the testator, and to provide offerings at the tomb on certain feast days throughout the year for the repose of the deceased’s soul.
“The terms ‘Brother,’ ‘Sister,’ in Egyptian text regularly meaning ‘Lover,’ are frequently interchangeable with ‘Husband,’ ‘Wife.’ They are so used on occasion in this book.
“The agricultural calendar of Ancient Egypt, consisting of three seasons of four months of thirty days, formed the background of peasant life, and with the addition of five intercalary days at the end of the year, was used as the official calendar of 365 days to the year. This ‘year’ originally began with the arrival in Egypt of the flood-water of the Nile in the third week of July by our reckoning. The absence of a leap year caused this to lag through the centuries, so that at the opening of the agricultural year, i.e. in January instead of July. To save the reader from continually having to make allowance for this six months, however, the dates here used as chapter headings are calculated by the agricultural year of the time, i.e., Inundation–late July to late November; Winter–late November to late March; and Summer–late March to late July.”
Characters in Death Comes as the End
- Imhotep, a mortuary priest (ka-priest); fussily pompous; provider for his large household
- Nofret, Imhotep’s beautiful young concubine, newly arrived from the north
- Esa, Imhotep’s mother; blunt-spoken, disdainful of much of her family; she calls her son a fool
- Renisenb (ren-eh-seb), Imhotep’s recently widowed daughter (husband Khay); mother of Teti
- Yahmose, Imhotep’s eldest son; he’s kind and hesitant, rarely asserting his rights as eldest son
- Satipy (sah-tee-pee), Yahmose’s wife; tall, energetic, loud woman who bullied her husband
- Sobek, Imhotep’s second son; handsome braggart who resents his dependent status
- Kait, Sobek’s wife; her love for her children dominated her every word and act
- Ipy (ee-pee), Imhotep’s youngest son; only his father could tolerate his adolescent arrogance
- Henet, obsequious, malicious family retainer, poor relation of Ashayet, Imhotep’s dead wife
- Hori, Imhotep’s family’s scribe and man of business; he is in love with Renisenb
- Kameni, a handsome scribe and kinsman from the North; he sings songs of love for Renisenb
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