From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Murder in Mesopotamia (Hercule Poirot, #14)

Agatha Christie

Start date: April 1, 2019

Finish date: April 30, 2019

Discussion: Archive: Poirot Buddy Reads

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 71 topics — 1,981 comments total

Archive: Poirot Buddy Reads

* Reading Order for the Unofficial Poirot Buddy Reads
By Jessica-sim · 54 posts · 155 views

last updated Dec 27, 2020 08:20AM

Poirot Buddy Read 40: SPOILER THREAD Curtain
By Jessica-sim · 20 posts · 35 views

last updated Feb 05, 2021 06:12PM

showing 6 of 6 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Apr 06, 2019 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is the fourteenth Poirot novel, which was first published in 1936. Written from the point of view of Amy Leatheran, a competent and no-nonsense nurse, who travels to Baghdad with a mother and her infant and is due to return to England when she is offered another job. Dr Leidner is an archeologist and recently there has been a certain uncomfortable atmosphere at the dig where he is working. His beautiful wife Louise has 'fancies' and, as Amy is keen to see more of the country, she is engaged ...more

30 likes · Like · see review

Oct 28, 2019 Kavita rated it really liked it

Shelves: golden-age-mystery, mystery, iraq

Knowing that Christie had accompanied her husband, Max Mallowan, to Mesopotamia and had modelled these characters after people she knew there tickled me. In fact, the character of Louise Leidner was inspired by the wife of the senior archaeologist in a dig where Mallowan was working. Christie knew here what she was writing about!

When a certain Dr. Leidner hires Nurse Leatheran to look after his wife, she immediately suspects there is something wrong. However, she did not bargain on a murder. Whe ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Nov 06, 2021 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2021, read-as-an-audiobook

I kind of loved that we found out Poirot is a practicing Catholic!

The woman narrator took away from the story because her men's voices were either nasally or extra nasally. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

May 27, 2021 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: agatha-christie, vintage-mystery, mystery, british-mystery, audionovel, set-in-iraq, mount-tbr-2021

Nurse Amy Leatheran is sent look after the wife of a prominent archaeologist on a dig in Iraq. Ostensibly, she is there because Louise Leidner is run-down and nervy. But she finds that her charge is scared for her life. Over a period of years, Louise has received threatening letters from a husband she thought was dead. Each time she became close to a man, a new letter would arrive--threating her with death if she ever became the wife of anyone besides Frederick Bosner. When she fell in love with Nurse Amy Leatheran is sent look after the wife of a prominent archaeologist on a dig in Iraq. Ostensibly, she is there because Louise Leidner is run-down and nervy. But she finds that her charge is scared for her life. Over a period of years, Louise has received threatening letters from a husband she thought was dead. Each time she became close to a man, a new letter would arrive--threating her with death if she ever became the wife of anyone besides Frederick Bosner. When she fell in love with Dr. Leidner and decided to marry him, no letter arrived and she thought that either Bosner had truly died...or, if it was a nasty practical joke, that the practical joker had tired of their game. But then another arrives saying that she has disobeyed and that now she must die.

The Leidners escape to the Middle East and again everything is quiet on the letter front for a good while. Now, however, the campaign has begun again and the most recent letter was hand delivered. There have also been mysterious faces and strange tapping sounds at Louise's window and she is sure that Bosner has arrived in Iraq. When Nurse Leatheran sees the letters, she think (as she realizes Dr. Leidner does) that, for whatever reason, Louise has sent the letters to herself because the handwriting looks very like a more cramped version of the woman's own. Whether it's because a very real fear has turned her brain or because the woman is bored and needs to dramatize herself, Nurse Leatheran isn't sure.

Both Dr. Leidner and Nurse Leatheran are prove wrong though when one afternoon Louise goes to her room for a nap and winds up bludgeoned to death. The difficulty is no stranger entered the archaeologist's compound during the relevant time and there is a mere ten minute window when the killer would have been able to get to her room without passing someone in the main area. Louise's room has one door and the windows were shut--and have bars which would have prevented entry in any case. it is a definite puzzle for the local police. Fortunately, Hercule Poirot is passing through the area on his way home from Syria and it isn't long before the famous detective solve the crime (with assistance from our medical narrator).

I primarily listened to this through our library's connection with Hoopla (though I do own hard copies of it) so I could "read" this while I worked and Anna Massey does a fine job with the narration. It had been a very long time since I first read this (back in the 1980s) although I have more recently watched the filmed version with David Suchet. I couldn't remember how closely the Suchet episode followed the book (and now I think I need to re-watch because with my sieve-like memory I still don't know...).

While I think the explanation of the first murder is a little bit extraordinary and the ultimate identity of the culprit is somewhat unbelievable--for reasons that can't be explained without spoiling*, the book overall is quite entertaining. The setting is good and I quite enjoyed Nurse Leatheran as our narrator. Since she is a complete outsider, we are encouraged to trust her observations, much as we would Hastings, and it was interesting to get a feminine perspective on the investigations of Poirot. Of course, it would have been even more interesting if she had turned out to be one of the Bosners in drag (as Poirot suggests as a possibility at one point)...but having a narrator turn out to be the culprit is a trick one should probably only use once and Christie had already pulled that one out of her bag of tricks.

Christie fooled me for a good while and I had my sights set on the wrong culprit...until the last really big clue. What tripped me up was the real motive, but I don't blame myself for that. Since the ultimate identity is somewhat unbelievable for spoilerish reasons--and I would not have dreamed of the spoilerish reason--it's not a surprise that I didn't spot the real motive. ★★★ and 1/2. [rounded up here]

*If you really must know: (view spoiler)

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 08, 2019 Frances rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-series

I am loving doing a reread of the Hercule Poirot series. Christie is truly the Queen of Crime.

2 likes · Like · see review

May 11, 2012 Sarah G rated it really liked it

I really loved this one, much more than I remembered. Lots of Mr P, a great narrator, a fab story all in all. I've taken a star off for some stuck-in-its-time racist comments but other than that, excellent. ...more

Like · see review