Picked up as an Audiobook from Audible, and read by the author, who does a decent job of it.

This book's concept started out as a "let's follow Agatha Christie's journeys to the middle east by train" story, but morphed into part travelogue, part history lesson and part Christie autobiography.

Eames attempts to do a trip between England and Baghdad, previously done several times and almost completely by train by Agatha Christie (and much on the Orient Express). This book is the result of when Eames tries to recreate this trip. The Orient Express, as was, was shut down in the 1970s, and has been recreated in part by some willing investors who, as a labour of love, have gathered the remaining rolling stock and put on some level of service. Lack of rolling stock, multiple local and global wars, and shifting borders (and that England is no longer a regional strong man in the area) has meant that such a trip undertaken by a solo Englisher is no longer really possible.[return][return]However, Eames does as he can, describing his various adventures through Europe and the Middle-east, and some of the more interesting people he meets. He goes through what remains of Yugoslavia, and finds out how some people are coping 10 years after the war that split the country in three.

His attempts to reach Baghdad on a bus with a motley crew of Westerners is tense, where noone really knows who is who, the English continue to have a stiff upper lipped colonial approach to travel, the Americans can be dodgy and everyone is trying to guess who the CIA agent is. This part of the trip reflects the tension and conflicting views of the potentially coming war. Eames� journey concluded on a bitter sweet note in Baghdad in 2003, with post-9/11 tensions running high and the Allied airplanes beginning to do bombing sorties in the skies. [return][return]At the end of the book is a �more straight� version of Christie�s trips in the Middle-East in her guise as the wife of an archaeologist and her continuing work as a worldwide known writer � several of her books, including �death in Mesopotamia� and �Murder on the Orient Express� were written during her second marriage. ( )

In 2002 Eames embarked on a (mostly) train journey from London, England to Iraq to follow in the footsteps of mystery author Agatha Christie. It is a beyond brilliant idea for Eames is able to weave together a travelogue of his own experiences, historical snapshots of the regions he traverses and an abbreviated biography of one of the world's best known crime writers of the century. Eames's journey takes him through Belgium, France, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Syria; ending in Damascus on the eve of the Gulf War. ( )

A nice idea, combining travel writing with a minibiography of Agatha Christie. Shame it drags on too long. ( )

This feels like a first attempt at a travel book, with a good idea - retracing the journey that Agatha Christie made after her failed first marriage to Baghdad by train (Orient Express).
However it felt a bit forced and the author did not interweave his personal journey and that of Agatha Christie in a smooth manner.
Overall it was interesting, both the contemporary story and that of Agatha Christie's, but it felt somewhat disjointed. ( )

This book made me think more about the current situation in Iraq and Afghanistan from a different perspective. Also, it did make me sad to think that as an American, I probably couldn't safely travel to many of the countries described so wonderfully in the book, because my 'lovely' government has made being an American akin to being a big butthead. This book did inspire me to start rereading the Christie books that are set in or around the [b:Orient Express|16304|Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot Mysteries)|Agatha Christie|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166722586s/16304.jpg|2285570] and that area of the Middle East. ( )