Editors Reads Verdict
One of Christie's most psychologically intense Poirot novels — the Petra setting is vividly rendered, the portrait of a monstrous matriarch is chilling, and the investigation probes depths of familial coercion that Christie rarely explored so directly.
What We Loved
- Mrs Boynton is one of Christie's most memorably malevolent characters — a study in domestic tyranny that feels genuinely disturbing
- The Petra setting gives the novel an atmospheric richness unusual in Christie's work, which rarely ventures far from England
- The psychological dimensions of the Boynton family's oppression are drawn with more sustained attention than Christie usually devotes to motive
Minor Drawbacks
- The victim's monstrousness slightly diffuses the tension of the investigation — the reader's sympathies are complicated in ways that slow the puzzle-solving momentum
- The solution is not among Christie's most surprising — the field of suspects is narrower than in her best works
Key Takeaways
- → Christie understood that the most frightening prisons have no visible walls — family loyalty can be a form of captivity
- → An exotic setting is not a distraction from character — it can intensify psychological isolation by removing the familiar
- → Motive matters more than mechanism when the victim is universally disliked
- → Poirot's psychological method is most necessary when physical evidence is minimal and every suspect is hiding something
| Author | Agatha Christie |
|---|---|
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Pages | 256 |
| Published | January 1, 1938 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Mystery, Crime Fiction, Classic |
Appointment with Death Review
Agatha Christie visited Petra in 1933 with her husband Max Mallowan, an archaeologist whose excavations in the Middle East she accompanied for much of her adult life. The experience clearly stayed with her. Appointment with Death, published in 1938, deploys the ancient Nabataean city as a setting with a confidence and specificity that most travel writers would envy, and uses its remoteness to create one of her most psychologically uncomfortable investigations.
The Boynton family are Americans. There are four adult children — Lennox, Raymond, Carol, and Ginevra — and a daughter-in-law, Nadine. They travel as a unit, always under the authority of their stepmother, Mrs Boynton: a vast, immobile woman who has spent decades systematically destroying the capacity for independent will in every member of her household. She is not merely unpleasant. She is a study in pathological control, and Christie’s portrait of her is one of the most genuinely chilling characterizations in the canon.
When Mrs Boynton is found dead in her chair at an archaeological camp in the Petra valley, Poirot — present in the area by coincidence — is persuaded by Colonel Carbury to spend a single day establishing the truth before the investigation proceeds officially. The challenge is not physical evidence, of which there is little. It is psychological: which member of the Boynton family, after years of comprehensive oppression, finally found both the opportunity and the will to act?
Christie is interested here in questions that her puzzle-making usually brackets: what does prolonged psychological cruelty do to the people who endure it, and what does it mean to kill someone who arguably deserved to die?
Our rating: 4.2/5 — A psychologically rich Poirot novel set against the extraordinary backdrop of Petra, anchored by one of Christie’s most disturbingly effective villains — and her own death is the crime.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Appointment with Death" about?
An American family on holiday in Petra, Jordan, is controlled by a tyrannical matriarch, Mrs Boynton. When she is found dead at an archaeological dig, Poirot must determine which of her long-oppressed family members finally snapped.
What are the key takeaways from "Appointment with Death"?
Christie understood that the most frightening prisons have no visible walls — family loyalty can be a form of captivity An exotic setting is not a distraction from character — it can intensify psychological isolation by removing the familiar Motive matters more than mechanism when the victim is universally disliked Poirot's psychological method is most necessary when physical evidence is minimal and every suspect is hiding something
Is "Appointment with Death" worth reading?
One of Christie's most psychologically intense Poirot novels — the Petra setting is vividly rendered, the portrait of a monstrous matriarch is chilling, and the investigation probes depths of familial coercion that Christie rarely explored so directly.
Ready to Read Appointment with Death?
Check the current price on Amazon.
Check Price on Amazon (paid link)Prices and availability are subject to change. See Amazon for current price.
Review last updated: