Trust Agatha Christie to turn out the brightest and generally slickest mystery currently at hand. Once more [in "Death on the Nile"] she makes most of her rivals look a bit silly with her skill in every department of the puzzler's art—or is it a science? Her main achievement this time—for she always performs some outstanding feat—probably lies in covering up the killer who ran amuck on the S.S. Karnak while some highly polished friends and enemies were returning from the Second Cataract; among them, fortunately, was Hercule Poirot, the little Belgian with the eggshaped head who saw death coming well in advance….

Mrs. Christie gives you a bird's-eye view of the whole situation and its ramifications before she starts the fatal Egyptian holiday, introducing her characters in their natural habitats in a brief first part, with everybody converging toward the land of the...