MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA
UK publication: 1936 (Collins)
US publication: 1936 (Dodd, Mead)
Detective: Hercule Poirot
Genre: Novel
Plot summary and comments: Amy Leatheran, a young nurse and the narrator of the novel, is employed by the archaeologist Dr. Leidner to look after his wife, Louise, who is apparently terrified of something or someone and who may be suffering from delusions. Mrs. Leidner tells Amy that she has been receiving threatening letters, perhaps written by her former husband who supposedly died in a train crash but written in a handwriting suspiciously similar to her own. When Mrs. Leidner is murdered, however, it appears that either the dead husband or his younger brother must have made good on these threats. To make matters worse, the crime appears to have been committed by one of those within the archaeological compound. Has the husband/brother been amongst them all along?
::READERS REVIEWS::
The people who decry this book as not being as good as some of her others are misplaced in their views. This is definitely another of her masterpieces. Her best Poirot books are those set in this kind of territory (I.e. Murder On the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, Appointment with Death, Murder, and this one.) because the setting really enhances the plot.
The way this book is narrated is rather different from some of the other books. Told from the perspective of the nurse who looked after the victim before she died, it is very engaging and the prose brings a very human element to the book, and the feelings and emotions of being caught up in a murder, in which everyone becomes a suspect. It works very well.
There are some great characters in this one. Some eccentric, some you grow to love, some you are indifferent to. None that you actively dislike. All intriguing.
The way the story unfolds is materful, and the methods for murder are, when finally revealed, ingenius. You would enver think of it in a million years, even thought it really is staring you in the face. Also, this books holds the top place in the "most vile deaths in an Agatha Christie novel" category. Anne Johnson's instrument of demise is, to be blunt, quite horrible. I felt sick at the thought of it. (And the way it was depicted in a recent television adaptation in the UK was quite vile. But powerful, and packs a great punch.)
An incredibly strong, yet simple, plot, is what makes this book stand out amongst her others. It has power, and is emotional and intense. The method of murder is quite brilliant. The solution, whilst not packing a great surprise as some of her more unlikely novels do, nonetheless rings true. (It would be incredibly hard to have made the identity of the killer a real surprise...all the characters seemed to be viable suspects, and wouldn't pack a great surprise if it was revealed to be them.)
This stands among "Towards Zero" "Murder is Easy" "Appointment With Death" "Death on the Nile" "Death Comes as the end" "And Then there Were None" and "Murder on the Orient Express" as one of her very very best books.
Although I enjoyed the setting of Murder in Mesopotamia (an archaeological dig), I found this book to be rather hackneyed and commonplace, definitely not up to Agatha Christie's standards. Somehow the characters seemed to be 2 dimensional...the only character who interested me was the young man who reminded the narrator of a Wodehouse character. In fact, after reading this book, I sallied forth to the library and checked out a book by P.G. Wodehouse, just so I could see what Ms. Christie was talking about. I highly recommend the works of Mr. Wodehouse, but not Murder in Mesopotamia. While I admit that the identity of the killer surprised me, by the time the murderer was unmasked, I was indifferent to the whole case. If you want to read a great Agatha Christie, read Death Comes as the End or And Then There Were None or Hallowe'en Party....they're all much better than Murder in Mesopotamia.
::YOUR OPINION::
