To get to the bottom of why the Nile is a murder mystery location that has bewitched readers for decades, I decided to talk to an author who has just published an Egypt based whodunnit: Robin Stevens. We talk about how she finalised the plot of Death Sets Sail  while on a Nile cruise, what it was about 1930s Egypt that held such a fascination for white British writers,  and why the boat in Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile is a character in its own right.

NB: There is some discussion of the plot of both Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie and Death Sets Sail by Robin Stevens in this episode, but no major plot points are revealed.

You can follow Robin on Twitter and Instagram @redbreastedbird. Her latest novel is Death Sets Sail and there are eight others in the Murder Most Unladylike series, plus a book of short stories coming in 2021. To keep up to date with her forthcoming work, see her website robin-stevens.co.uk.

The Shedunnit Pledge Drive is still underway, and we’re now over ninety per cent of the way to hitting the target already. If I can add a total of 100 new members to the Shedunnit Book Club by the end of 2020, I can start releasing episodes (like this one!) more regularly and expanding what the podcast covers. If you’d like to be part of that and feel able to offer some support, please visit shedunnitbookclub/pledgedrive.

To be the first to know about future developments with the podcast, sign up for the newsletter at shedunnitshow.com/newsletter. You can contact me with ideas for future episodes on caroline @ shedunnitshow.com

The podcast is on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram as @ShedunnitShow, and you can find it in all major podcast apps. Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss the next episode. Click here to do that now in your app of choice.

Find a full transcript of this episode at shedunnitshow.com/niletranscript.

Music by Audioblocks. See shedunnitshow.com/musiccredits for more details.

Download the mp3 of this episode here