Maurice Richardson, a self-proclaimed admirer of Christie, wrote in the 8 April 1945 issue of "The Observer", "One of the best weeks of the war for crime fiction. First, of course, the new Agatha Christie; "Death Comes as the End". And it really is startlingly new, with its ancient Egyptian setting in the country household of a mortuary priest who overstrains his already tense family by bringing home an ultra-tough live in concubine from Memphis. Result: a series of murders. With her special archaeological equipment, Mrs Christie makes you feel just as much at home on the Nile in 1945 B.C. as if she were bombarding you with false clues in a chintz-covered drawing room in Leamington Spa. But she has not merely changed scenes; her reconstruction is vivid and she works really hard at her characters. My already insensate admiration for her leaps even higher."