Another strong Agatha Christie mystery. I enjoyed the descriptions about life at an archaeological dig, which ring true because the author had first-hand knowledge of them, and the psychological portrait of the characters and the relationships between them.

The mystery was clever, as usual, although with one or two difficult to believe happenings. Also, Poirot's brilliant solution explains everything but lacks proof, and despite that the criminal obligingly admits everything. This is a common situation in Golden Age of Detection mysteries. So a bit too convenient, but I don't mind, because the pleasure is in the characters and how cleverly the author plants her clues and red herrings so that I never see the solution coming. ( )

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/murder-in-mesopotamia-by-agatha-christie/

It’s mainly remembered for the story behind the story; the first murder victim is based strongly on the real-life Lady Katherine Woolley, wife of Sir Leonard Woolley who led the 1930s excavation at Ur where Agatha Christie met her second husband, Sir Max Mallowan.

Massive spoilers: The various European and American characters in the book are vividly drawn. But the murder part of the plot is frankly ridiculous. It requires the first victim to have forgotten crucial details of her own previous marriage, and also requires that she remains strangely silent at the crucial moment of being murdered. The second murder is very poorly planned and could easily have failed. The murderer is very lucky that they actually off their victims. They are unlucky that Poirot is there to catch them out.

Despite my frustrations with the narrative, I found the context really fascinating. It’s a thoroughly racist book – Iraq was basically under British military occupation at the time, and the Arabs get barely a mention – and certainly not a positive one – in the narrative.

I was struck by a couple of other points too. The narrator’s name is Amy Leatheran; that surname simply doesn’t exist in real life. (She pops up again in the 1970 Agatha Christie novel Passenger to Frankfurt, nursing the narrator’s great-aunt, but does not appear to have aged 35 years in the meantime.) I’m wondering what significance the name has. If you swap “leather” for “mallow”, you get A. Mallowan, which was Agatha Christie’s married name, but maybe that’s stretching a bit. ( )

At the recommendation of a British doctor working in Iraq, nurse Amy Leatheran joins the expedition of Swedish-American archaeologist Dr Leidner in order to care for his wife, who has 'fancies: Mrs Leidner fears that a person from her past will catch up with her and kill her. As soon as arrives at the expedition house in Hassanieh, she notices how strained the atmosphere among the members of the household is. Shortly after, Mrs Leidner's worst fears appear to come true as her husband finds her dead body – but it would have been almost impossible for a stranger to have come into the house ... Fortunately Hercule Poirot is passing through and agrees to take on the case. Will he be able to find out the truth?

In this novel Amy Leatheran gives a detailed account of the events in which she played a minor role after several years have passed, which always makes an interesting departure from the usual third-person narrative. Shame that she and several other characters are just very unlikeable because the mystery is actually quite intriguing, even if the final solution is annoyingly overblown and even more far-fetched than usual.

I enjoyed the depictions of the archaeological dig and the surroundings, which add a different kind of local colour to the usually home-grown locations, even if the descriptions of the native workers and servants still very often smacked of British superiority. ( )

One of the most preposterous Christie plots, with Poirot exceedingly pompous and long-winded, as ever. ( )

Poirot joins a dig part way through (on his way to solving the "Murder on the orient express") after Mrs Liedner dies. Usual red herrings and underlying passions, secrets and lies are uncovered before the murderer is found