Murder in Mesopotamia (Poirot) (Hercule Poirot Series)

This fabulous mystery by Agatha Christie has long been a favorite of mine. It outshines many of her other mysteries due to some wonderful atmosphere and a very likable heroine in Amy Leatheren. Hercule Poirot, though a major force in solving the mystery, plays second fiddle in this most entertaining murder mystery.

Murder in Mesopotamia is an adventure set in an exotic land where a murder occurs. The first half of the book almost has the feel of an M.M. Kaye mystery. Though one could not put Christie in the same class with Kaye in regards to romantic description of a time and place, there is certainly atmosphere to spare, and it is only when Hercule Poirot is introduced into the story that we see the classic elements of mystery fiction Agatha Christie invented come to the forefront.

Amy Leatheren is a young nurse asked to accompany an archaelogical expedition to the Middle East to look after Louise Leidner, the wife of the man heading the dig. Louise is a beautiful but frightened woman capable of both sweetness and offhand cruelty. What she is frightened of is quite vague but may be connected to tensions on the dig. On the suface it is friendly and familiar, but a dangerous unrest lies just beneath the surface.

Amy discovers answers to questions too late to prevent a particularly brutal murder and Christie's famous detective, Hercule Poirot, must solve the baffling puzzle of how the murder occurred. Amy has been asked to put on pen and paper her account of the events which transpired and this is her narrative. Soon she is acting as Poirot's helper and, to her delight and embarrassment, having the time of her life. There are both secret relationships and secret identities, and before too long, another murder.

Christie creates a wonderful atmosphere here. From the Tigris Palace Hotel in Baghdad to Tell Yarimjah, and from bazaars where people from various nationalities and backgrounds gather to tea and scones ovelooking the ruins she makes the archaelogical expedition come alive. You really get a sense of people moving about in a passion to discover this Assyrian city like Niveveh close to Hassanieh. You can almost see the beautiful and unusual Louise nearly asking to be murdered yet at the same time oblivious to the true danger that lies in wait.

While the solution is wildly intricate and implausible, a fun and likable heroine and tons of atmosphere make for a nice mystery read. A delightfully old-fashioned mystery fans of the genre will relish.

Like "They Came to Baghdad", this book draws on Christie's familiarity with archaeologists working in Mesopotamia, which makes it particularly interesting. It is also a unique artifact itself as we get a true ( non P.C. ) look at Iraq in the period between the wars showing that its problems are deeply rooted and not the fault of any other nation in the postwar period.
The plot of the novel rests on an unlikely backstory of one of the character's former husbands, who was in turn a spy, a prisoner, a train wreck victim, and a misidentified body. If you can get past this it is an enjoyable read.

This fabulous mystery by Agatha Christie has long been a favorite of mine. It outshines many of her other mysteries due to some wonderful atmosphere and a very likable heroine in Amy Leatheren. Hercule Poirot, though a major force in solving the mystery, plays second fiddle in this most entertaining murder mystery.

Murder in Mesopotamia is an adventure set in an exotic land where a murder occurs. The first half of the book almost has the feel of an M.M. Kaye mystery. Though one could not put Christie in the same class with Kaye in regards to romantic description of a time and place, there is certainly atmosphere to spare, and it is only when Hercule Poirot is introduced into the story that we see the classic elements of mystery fiction Agatha Christie invented come to the forefront.

Amy Leatheren is a young nurse asked to accompany an archaelogical expedition to the Middle East to look after Louise Leidner, the wife of the man heading the dig. Louise is a beautiful but frightened woman capable of both sweetness and offhand cruelty. What she is frightened of is quite vague but may be connected to tensions on the dig. On the suface it is friendly and familiar, but a dangerous unrest lies just beneath the surface.

Amy discovers answers to questions too late to prevent a particularly brutal murder and Christie's famous detective, Hercule Poirot, must solve the baffling puzzle of how the murder occurred. Amy has been asked to put on pen and paper her account of the events which transpired and this is her narrative. Soon she is acting as Poirot's helper and, to her delight and embarrassment, having the time of her life. There are both secret relationships and secret identities, and before too long, another murder.

Christie creates a wonderful atmosphere here. From the Tigris Palace Hotel in Baghdad to Tell Yarimjah, and from bazaars where people from various nationalities and backgrounds gather to tea and scones ovelooking the ruins she makes the archaelogical expedition come alive. You really get a sense of people moving about in a passion to discover this Assyrian city like Niveveh close to Hassanieh. You can almost see the beautiful and unusual Louise nearly asking to be murdered yet at the same time oblivious to the true danger that lies in wait.

While the solution is wildly intricate and implausible, a fun and likable heroine and tons of atmosphere make for a nice mystery read. A delightfully old-fashioned mystery fans of the genre will relish.

During his travels in the Middle East in the 1930s, Poirot solves a murder that has taken place amongst an archeological expedition, with the help of a middle-aged nurse called Amy Leatheran. Although written after Murder on the Orient Express, this particular mystery occurs just prior to Poirot's most famous case (in fact Poirot is on his way to Baghdad when he's diverted by this particular mystery).

It is Amy that provides the first-person narrative, writing on the behest of the man who involved her in the case in the first place, a doctor-friend who set her up as a nurse for his friend's wife. Doctor Leidner is a Swedish-American archeologist whose wife is suffering from nervous fits and anxiety, but when Amy meets her she is instantly captivated by the woman's beauty and charm. Louise Leidner is an intriguing character: intoxicating and charismatic, she is unknowingly creating a lot of tension amidst both male and female members of the excavation.

Providing Mrs Leidner with companionship, Amy is soon told the reason for the woman's growing fear: over the course of her life she has received threatening letters from her first husband, a man who was supposed to have died in a railway accident long ago. His letters insist that she never love another man but him; now that she's remarried, she's been living in fear.

And, naturally, she has good reason to be afraid. When she is found dead in her bedroom, the police manage to rope Mr Poirot in to investigate matters. After ascertaining that the killer must have come from inside the house, Poirot recruits Amy as his eyes and ears within the household, and the commonsensical Amy helps him make his inquiries. Although she herself adored Louise (a character who was said to be based on a real woman that Christie met on one of her husband's digs), it becomes clear that not everyone felt the same way about the woman who always insisted on being the centre of attention, and the instigator of drama. Plotting through the web of love affairs, jealousies, secrets and lies that permeate the group, Poirot naturally comes up with the solution.

Amy is a good choice for the storyteller, for though it means that Poirot is not very prominent, she makes for an insightful and chatty narrator who is neither very old nor very young, unlike most of Christie's other protagonists. As such, Amy has a blend of both naivety and wisdom that allows her to form accurate and sensible opinions, but which means she remains completely in the dark as to what's really happening (and the fact that she dislikes the stuffy and rather arrogant Poirot is another point in her favour!) As the requisite victim, Louise Leidner is one of Christie's most intriguing characters - lovely and charming, but with a cruel streak, described as a "female Iago" and the unattainable "La Belle Dame sans Merci" of Keat's poem - and it's almost a shame when she's killed! Her interactions with the rest of the excavation group are fascinating, as are their reactions to her death.

Although not one of Christie's best mysteries, "Murder in Mesopotamia" is one of her most atmospheric. Drawing on her own experiences with an archeological husband and her travels in the Middle East, Christie creates an eerie and mysterious setting for her story - though at the same time she slyly points out that the Western perception of the East as an exotic and fairytale-like place is a myth, and that the beauty of Iraq lies in its stark, gritty landscape. Amusingly, Amy isn't impressed with either Iraq or archeology at first (looking upon the excavation site as a mud pit), but gradually comes to appreciate its splendor at about the same time she grasps understanding of the suspects around her: "like a piece of fusty old stuff you take into the light and suddenly see the rich colors of an old embroidery."

It is the resolution that prevents this from being one of Christie's best mysteries, simply because the central premise is so implausible. It's impossible for me to elaborate further without giving away the ending, and since reading the book I have read other readers' justification of the premise that helps me make more sense of it, if not entirely accept it. But at the time, it jolted me out of the story.

Still, no Christie mystery is a waste of time, and "Murder in Mesopotamia" contains some of her best characterization and descriptive passages.

Agatha Christie's second husband was a famous archaeologist. Dame Agatha spent many pleasurable years traveling with him to digs throughout the Middle East. Iraq is the setting for Murder in Mesopotamia one of her finest Hercule Poirot novels.
The Plot: Amy Leatheren is the narrator of the story. She is a nurse who travels East with Major and Mrs. Kelsey to care for their new baby. They return to England; meanwhile Amy is employed by Dr. Leidner to care for his wife Louise. Louise believes she is being sent letters from her first husband. He was a German spy during World War I who was executed after Louise reported him to the government. Shortly after Amy is employed to join the Leidner expedition, Louise is brutally murdered. There are several suspects:
Young men who are on the dig team include Bill Coleman, Richard Carey and Joseph Mercado (whose wife is jealous of the lovely engimatic Louise).
Other suspects include: Father Lavigny a supposed expert in ancient languages; Anne Johnson a long time assistant to Leidner and Sheila Reilly a wiseacre young English lass who does not like Louise. L
Hercule Poirot is called in to solve the crime. The little grey cells are used to perfection and the murderer is revealed!
The atmosphere of the Middle East; the winsome quality of Nurse Amy and the difficulty in solving the murder make for a grand mixture of pleasurable reading for the fan of Christie and the classic English murder mystery novel! Have fun!

"Murder in Meopotamia" is one of Agatha Christie's novels to feature Hercule Poirot in the Middle East, combining her sleuth's extraordinary detective skills with her own knowledge and love for archaeology. As with all Christie works, it is a fast-paced read filled with her trademark twists. The narration this time is provided by Amy Leatheran, a nurse who acts as counterpart to Poirot when he is called to the scene of the crime.

Nurse Amy Leatheran finds herself called to an archaeological dig in Hassanieh to spend time with Mrs. Leidner, wife of the dig's supervisor, Dr. Leidner. She has the nickname "Lovely Louise" and a reputation for toying with people. Nurse Leatheran sees a different side of her, a woman scared to death that she is going to be killed. For Mrs. Leidner has been receiving threatening letters for some time and her husband does not believe she is in any particular danger. It is just a case of the nerves, in his opinion. But when his wife is found murdered, Hercule Poirot is called in and the great sleuth knows that the guilty party must be someone connected with Dr. Leidner's dig. For even though Dr. Leidner claims everyone adored his wife, the stories that the other characters have to tell do not match the good doctor's opinion.

"Murder in Mesopotamia" is an intriguing mystery, not quite as convoluted as other Christie pieces, but just as satisfying a puzzle to solve. The matter-of-fact narration from the character of Amy Leatheran is a welcome change from other Poirot stories, for she knows nothing about him and sees him and his idiosyncracies through fresh eyes. "Murder in Mesopotamia" once again affirms Christie's rightful place as the top mystery writer, for she can make the most confounding riddle as clear as a bell with no red herrings left unaccounted for.

Oh how I love Agatha Christie and the famous Hercule Poirot. Murder In Mesopotamia is now officially one of my favorite Agatha Christie mysteries. Why? Because I just simply didn't see the ending coming. Christie was so talented at leading you to look everywhere but at the actual perpetrator. Of course, by saying this I may give something away, but trust me, if you read this you will not be disappointed.

In typical fashion, Hercule Poirot just happens to be passing through when the latest murder happens, and naturally he is called upon to try to solve the mystery. Initially Amy Leatheran is skeptical of his abilities, but in his usual way, Poirot is able to convince her that despite his silly appearance and tendancies towards arrogance at times, he does indeed know what he's doing.

One of the things I love about Agatha Christie is that she always sets the stage for the crime to occur. We see the characters before the murder actually takes place and start to form opinions about who might have a motive and a means. Next, she adeptly leads us through Poirot's questionings of all of the possible suspects, leaving it up to us to try to decipher clues that she subtly drops. I think I have yet to solve one of her mysteries for myself. I have come close, but never quite dead-on. This particular mystery ranks right up there with The Murder of Roger Akroyd, for me.

This book is remarkable for the empathetic narrator- the nurse is a good narrative choice, as she stands apart from what is essentially a locked room murder- (with one important twist) but is given fair access to the victim's personality and character.

The actual mechanics are good, if ultimately somewhat gimcrack- in particular the central hidden fact is profoundly unconvincing psychologically. Without giving away key points, it is difficult to imagine the central deceit surviving any extended time between the relevant parties.

What makes the book memorable is the rather melodramatic take the nurse-narrator provides on the other characters- superficially this is very thoughtful, but writing this review makes me realize that the characterizations are relatively flat. In the velocity of reading for the resolution, I found the final language powerful, and I love the quote used, but the answers seem forced- I admire her attempt to focus more on interior life but think the book ultimately founders on the well-charted shoals of pop psychology.

Hercule Poirot is passing through Iraq just after a murder has been committed. Our suave hero interviews the suspects, surveys the environs, parries and thrusts here and there to bring out truth from suspects, and, of course, uses his highly efficient, superior, and discerning mental capacities to deduce the identity of the murderer. It's just another day of work for this short, Belgian detective. This particular story is narrated by Nurse Leatheran who gives the reader her detailed description of Poirot's quirky "foreign" manners and "twinkle" in his eye. I loved the author's depiction of a foolhardy, British, colonial sense of superiority set against Poirot's own elan and propriety as a "foreigner." The story moved quite quicky with twenty-nine short chapters which made for a book that was easy to put down and pick up again. Poirot is more refined and debonair than Maigret, Holmes, Gripstra, and DeKok together all together. For those who love a good "whodunit," this is a very good story by one of the world's greatest mystery writers.

Oftentimes, in Agatha Christie's novels, the crimes are always based from something that has happened a long time ago, i.e. 'past sins cast long shadows'. And more often than not, money has always been the central cause of the murders. In this novel, Christie only obeys the first statement. Even the motif is rather outlandish and cruel.
The setting is somewhere in the digs of outer Baghdad (obviously she drew these from her experiences with her second husband Max Mallowan, who was an archaeologist) in a quarters for archaeologists. Due to her unstable mental conditions (seeing faces at her window where no one could have stood and peered in), Dr Eric Lidner looks for a companion-nurse for his wife, Louise. He found Amy Leatheran who became Louise's confidante and one day she tells Amy that someone was after her, probably her first husband whom she thought had died. After that outburst Louise refused to talk about it anymore until one day when his husband found Louise's dead body in a locked room, in front of the whole achaeology team. Nurse Leatheran later finds herself as a suspect when Poirot arrives, but later became his sidekick.
Plot-wise, this is one of Agatha Christie's best. The stroyline is also richly layered, with various people who have different crimes of their own which unwittingly made them suspects. This is a wonderful read, as it was with the rest of the Queen's stories.

Married to an archaeologist working in the Iraqi desert, author Agatha Christie knew the Baghdad area well and was familiar with the procedures which archaeologists follow in doing excavations. An aura of reality therefore surrounds this mystery which she sets in Tel Yarimyah on a desert dig, not in the usual closed room of a country house. Amy Leatheren, a nurse, has been hired by Dr. Eric Leidner, the director, to be a temporary companion to his wife Louise. Louise, alternately described as a "female Iago" and as "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," has received written death threats from her first husband, long thought to be dead, and she fears for her life.

The murder of Louise coincides with a trip through the east being taken by Hercule Poirot, and he is soon called in. Here the mystery becomes typical Christie. The body has been found in a closed room of Louise's living quarters, the door locked. All the suspects have alibis, and the servants on guard swear that no one has come into the area from outside. Poirot engages the help of Amy Leatheren in sorting out who likes and who hates Louise Leidner and who might not have a legitimate alibi. Red herrings galore keep the reader occupied--love affairs, flirtations, suggestions the treasures in storage room may have been tampered with, and jealousy.

When the murder is solved, Poirot gathers all the people from the dig into one room, where he goes through the evidence on a point by point basis, then announces a new twist for which there had been no prior evidence in the story. The characters, though wooden, have some interesting traits which keep the reader occupied, and the story is intriguing. Ultimately, however, Christie so manipulates her conclusions regarding the murderer that even Poirot admits there is no firm evidence to prove that X is really the killer, a weakness which undercuts the novel. Lucky for Poirot, the killer obligingly confesses, leaving no loose threads. Fun to read, this novel is interesting for its setting, though not one of Christie's best. n Mary Whipple

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries)
The Sittaford Mystery (Agatha Christie Signature Edition)
Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot Mysteries)
Lord Edgware Dies

"Murder in Mesopotamia" was written in 1936 and takes place just before the exellent "Murder in the Orient Express", one of Christies most classic novels. Unfortunately "Murder in Mesopotmia" appears to have given all it's strenght to that particulary ingenious story.
The narrator is Amy Leatherman, a young nurse who is asked to join an archeological expedition in Irak. The reason for this is the wife of the leader of the expedition, Louise Leidner, who's distressed because of mysterious letters with death threats contained in them. And it just happens that the threats seem to be something more serious than just practical jokes...
Christie leans on an obvious story instead of creating something truly original like she so often has. The murderer is pretty obvious and even the method isn't nearly as complex as you'd expect if you've read Christie before.
"Murder in Mesopotamia" is entertainment above all else and it doesn't contain any of the more deeper aspects Christie often includes in her novels.
Borrow it from the library if you like to read something light, but don't bother to by it, you probably won't need to read this one again.

As another customer said: "In this book, you'll feel thrilled, devastated, fondness, fear, suspicion, hatred, curious and even more....
You'll feel thrilled when the genius Hercule Poirot solves the mystery....
You'll feel devastated when a character you have learned to love is brutally murdered....
You'll feel fondness for the main characters Nurse and Hurcule Poirot as well as the suspects....
You'll feel fear when someone is discovered sneaking about the grounds and again when you realize that unless the murder is solved, the person whose viewpoint we have will be the next victim...
You'll feel suspicion against all the characters as M. Poirot interrogates them....
You'll feel hatred against atleast two of the characters, the conceited, spoilt daughter of the doctor and again against the unknown murderer....
You'll feel curious as did Nurse when she snooped around for the littlest clue which might help M. Poirot."
And I agree completely and I think you will too after you have read this book. Read it today.

I've recently reread Agatha Christie's "Murder in Mesopotamia". This is one of her best. Even knowing the solution I still enjoy the narrative and watching how she lays out the clues. Having Nurse Latheran tell the story is a nice change although I miss Capt Hastings.

One of the impressive features of this book is what Ms Christie does not include. There is just enough description of Iraq to set the atmosphere but not overwhelm us with local color. There is a bare minimum of archaelogical information when she easily could have piled it on. And thankfully she just not let Nurse Leatheran get involved in romances.

The plot is somewhat far-fetched but is definitely "fair play". The characters, especially the victim, have distict well-defined personalities. Hercule Poirot is pleasantly fallible, but fear not -- he does eventually arrive at the truth.

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.

Summary: Nurse Leatheran is hired to watch over nervous Mrs Leidner, wife of archaeologist Dr Leidner. While she originally seems like a nervous Nellie, her fears are proven true when she is found murdered. Can the famous Hercule Poirot catch the killer?

Well I don't really like Poirot but he's not as annoying as in other books (I think he's exceptionally cruel to Hastings) and Nurse Leatheran doesn't really like him (or his stupid egg shaped head) either although this is based on British xenophobia (which seems to be a common theme in Christie books). There is also a wide variety of personalities in the camp and the interaction of them is one of the pleasures of the book. I also liked the victim so I was sad to see her dead.

I did not figure out the murderer-honestly I think I should just give up trying. I think I've read eight mysteries in the past month and I haven't solved any of them. Luckily I've never aspired to be a detective or anything but this just seems to be further proof that I fail. There is also something that needs to be believed in order to make the murderer credible; reading other reviews, some people didn't but I was able to square it in my mind.

Overall: 4/5 especially for the narrator-I think I liked her more than Hastings and she was certainly treated better than Hastings by Poirot.

I thought I would miss hearing Poirot’s adventures narrated by Hastings, his usual chronicler and friend. However, it was interesting to see how Poirot is viewed from outsiders who are unaware of just how clever his little grey cells really are.

Agatha Christie is my favorite author of all time (and I'm only 14 years old), and this book is one of my favorites of hers.

Nurse Amy Leatheran is hired by American archaeologist Dr. Eric Leidner, on an expedition in Mesopotamia, to look after his anxious wife, Louise. One day Louise confesses to Nurse Leatheran that she has been receiving threatening letters warning her away from romantic relations with other men, purported to be from her first husband, now supposed to be dead. The next day she is found bludgeoned in her bedroom. According to the natives, no stranger entered the courtyard, so the killer must be one of the expedition staff. Who sent the letters (and possibly killed her)? Her first husband? His younger brother? Her current husband, Dr. Leidner? Another archaeologist on the team? Dr. Leidner's assistant? Or even Nurse Leatheran? Luckily for the local police, Hercule Poirot is on his way to Baghdad and just might stop in...

The motive and the M.O. were simple, compared to some of Christie's later novels, and it was, as I said above, wonderfully planned. A murder carried out while giving the murderer an alibi at the same time...

The influence of Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband, Sir Max Mallowan, is prominently displayed here. (I liked the television movie adaptation with David Suchet, but that's just me - I love the whole series. Hastings was included, and the scenery and music were wonderful.)
All in all, an excellent read by one of the greatest authors of all time (and a decent TV movie, if you'd like to check it out.) :-)

Full disclosure, I haven't yet finished listening to this audiobook. It's the 3rd Christie book we've listened to while on long car trips, and both of the previous ones we enjoyed immensely. Unfortunately, what's shaping up to be another delightful Hercule Poirot mystery is spoiled by an awful reading performance - the accents are terrible and inconsistent, and as a result the dialogue sounds unnatural and stilted, and it is difficult to distinguish the characters. I hope there's a better version out there somewhere!

Christie sets this engaging mystery at an archaeological dig. Narrator Amy Leatheran, a nurse sent to care for Louise Leidner, doesn't believe her charge's tales of being in danger -at least, not until Louise is found dead. Who killed her? Her late ex-husband, who may not be dead after all? His brother? Another archaeologist who was in love with her? Once Poirot begins to investigate, most of those present on the dig turn out to have motives, or possible motives.
Hercule Poirot solves the mystery, which is well-done, but the interplay between the characters is equally engaging. Christie was fabulous at seeing, and describing, the social interactions between people. One of my favorite Christies and highly recommended.

As usual, one perfect Poirot helped me to give up on stupid books and appreciate the real krimi. I am pretty sure, but that's only my humble opinion, that as far as I know, there is no better detective than the egg shaped head Belgian, at last in the fictitious world.

Come al solito basta leggere un Poirot per decidere che tutti gli altri libri gialli non valgono la pena. Per quanto mi riguarda non ci sono detective alla sua altezza, quanto meno nel mondo dei libri, che poi é quello che frequento io, per fortuna, ma questa é solo la mia opinione.

Book 14 in the series is a will written entertaining mystery with two murders that Hercule Poirot solves in the last chapter. The suspects are many that must be sorted through. I would recommend this series too anyone who enjoys a will written mystery. Enjoy reading

MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA has atmosphere and an intricate plot and is a fascinating psychological study. In these respects it is like Christie's DEATH ON THE NILE (also starring Hercule Poirot) - but unlike that classic it has no extraneous characters and subplots; it does have, however, the most engaging of Christie's first-person narrators, a nurse named Amy Leatheren. And for those mystery fans who relish the "gather everyone in a room for an explanation of the solution"-type denouement, MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA's is superb.

Murder in Mesopotamia is set in Iraq prior to 1935 on the site of a British archeological expedition. Hercule Poirot ferrets out which team member crosses over the line to murder. Along the way, he employs pure logic to consider motive, opportunity, and method. Circumstantial facts will verify his intellectual process. Without my spoiling the plot, I can vouch for a far-fetched incident or two. Otherwise, the suspenseful fun emphasizes psychology of the human heart.

I read this book for the first time yesterday, and it immediately became one of my favorites. It takes place on a dig somewhere outside of Bagdad. It is told my Amy Leatheran, a nurse who is asked to be a companion to one of the people at the site. The tone and manner of this narrator makes for a fun read. I also liked the perceptions of a young, independent woman, as we don't normally see that in Christie's works. We see Hercule Poirot as a more minor character, which is interesting to me.

This book in my opinion was pretty good. It started off a little slow, but it got interesting. At the beginning of the book, Nurse Leatheran was asked by Dr. Leidner to stay with his wife, Mrs. Leidner because she was acting weird. Something was bothering her. So the nurse goes. When she gets there, she finds that Dr. Leidner is an archeologist and has an expedition team. They are all staying at Dr. Leidner's house. The nurse meets Mrs. Leidner and finds out why she is acting the way she is. She was getting letters from her husband from twenty years ago saying that he was going to kill her. So Mrs. Leidner was afraid. A few days later Mrs. Leinder gets murdered. A detective named Hercule Poirot was passing the area and decides to take the case. He talks to the nurse and the whole expedition staff. You find out that anyone could have committed the murder. Poirot narrows it down a little, but it is still very unclear who did it. After suspecting Miss Johnson, she is killed. The nurse was talking to her the day before, and it seemed that Miss Johnson knew something about the murder and wouldn't tell the nurse, and the next day she is dead. The book gets pretty good when Poirot is trying to figure out who the murderer is. You also start thinking about who did it. At the beginning of the book the nurse is just a nurse, but when the story goes on, she starts to help out Poirot in solving the mystery. When you start nearing the end of the book, things get narrowed down. You have a good idea of who it could be. But don't jump to any conclusions because the murderer isn't who you think it is. Poirot figures out who it is, and goes on telling the staff just how he thinks the murderer had committed it. After explaining it, the murderer confesses that the story Poirot had told was completely true. I thought it was an interesting way Mrs. Leidner had been killed. It made perfect sense when Poirot told what happened, but I never thought of it earlier. I think this was a good mystery. I liked the way Agatha had written this one. You didn't really know all of the characters very well though. You knew some better than others, so you really couldn't suspect as many of them. I wanted to put the book down when I first started reading it, but I made myself read it and after a few chapters I really started enjoying it. I think most people would like this book, and would be interested in who the killer was.

I love Agatha Christie and I really like this particular story. It's a lot of fun seeing Hercule Poirot from the perspective of a totally different person, the nurse, Amy Leatheran. But the reader, Anna Massey, does a terrible job on some of the voices in this one. Poirot's French accent is so thick that you can hardly understand him sometimes. And in the last few chapters, that's a big problem, as it is almost exclusively told by Poirot. She does fine with the English voices, but since she's English, that's not very hard. Even the American voices are not quite right. If I hadn't really wanted to hear the story, I wouldn't have bothered with this recording.

CMB

Just finished this book.... I really liked the psychological aspects Poirot addressed, but I think the story would have been better if you could have seen more of what the expedition was like before the murder. I like how Christie's books always supprise you at the end when she reveals the murderer(usually the last person you guess!) My favorite books by her are "N or M" and "They Came to Bahgdad" Read them!

Honestly, I knew with certainty who the killer was before Poirot showed up, on page 76. It was very difficult to anticipate how the murderer did it, because basically that technique wouldn't have worked more than one time in a hundred. And the motive was difficult to figure out, basically because there wasn't one. I bought my copy in an airport transit lounge, and it served the purpose of killing two hours and introducing me to Agatha Christie and to Hercule Poirot. Overall, though, I think I'll stick to Sherlock Holmes. Oh, and don't buy this book expecting to learn about Iraq or archeology.

Murder in Mesopotamia is one of the better mysteries written by Agatha Christie. There are many suspects, including Dr. Lidner, Nurse Leatherman, Miss Johnson, Mr. Coleman, Mr. Richard Carey, Mr. Mercado, Mrs. Mercado, Miss Matilan and Super Intendent Matilan.
This story revolves around Louise Lidner, who is killed. This mystery is interesting because it is not what it seems. As Hercule Poirot states, "It is so straight forward." You really get to know every character. One of them whom you grow attatched to and was mentioned above, is murdered. Definitely read "Murder in Mesopotamia."

I love everything Agatha wrote (well, more or less), but this book is far from her best. It drags, as other readers have mentioned, and the Christie wit is less pronounced than usual. Worst, the premise is probably her most dubious. Remarry a former spouse and not recognize him? Not likely.