From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

They Came to Baghdad

Agatha Christie

Start date: August 1, 2021

Finish date: August 31, 2021

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: The next title in our Assorted Christies challenge.
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Group Challenges

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) by Agatha Christie
By Susan · 16 posts · 18 views

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* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) - SPOILER Thread
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last updated Sep 11, 2025 09:26AM

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What Members Thought

Jul 24, 2021 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Although I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie, I much prefer her mysteries/crime novels to her adventure type books. Written in 1951, this is very much an adventure, with a bored young secretary, Victoria Jones, following a young man she met in a park, to Baghdad on a whim.

This throws her into a fantastic - and dangerous - conspiracy. There have been rumours of a meeting of superpowers to be held in the city, while a shadowy group are attempting to stop it. This results in Victoria having a man d ...more

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Jul 13, 2013 Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore rated it really liked it

Shelves: british, mystery, agatha-christie, murder, archaeology, middle-east

They Came to Baghdad, first published in 1951, is one of Agatha Christie’s espionage/thriller novels which very much centres around the issues of the day—the post war environment, and ideas prevalent at the time. I read the book for a Goodreads group with which I’m reading through 12 lesser known Christies this year. This is the book for August.

As the story opens, we are following three threads. We learn that a conference of superpowers is to be held at Baghdad—described in a ‘hush hush’ manner They Came to Baghdad, first published in 1951, is one of Agatha Christie’s espionage/thriller novels which very much centres around the issues of the day—the post war environment, and ideas prevalent at the time. I read the book for a Goodreads group with which I’m reading through 12 lesser known Christies this year. This is the book for August.

As the story opens, we are following three threads. We learn that a conference of superpowers is to be held at Baghdad—described in a ‘hush hush’ manner though everyone on the street seems to know of it. We also learn that a man called Carmichael who has been born and brought up in the East and can pass for an Arab has obtained some crucial information which he is going to bring to this conference.

Alongside, in America, a woman called Anna Scheele, efficient and highly intelligent secretary to a financier Otto Morganthal, seeks leave of absence to visit her sister who is to have surgery in London. There she does some shopping, goes to the nursing home to visit her sister and then seems to simply vanish. Some people have been following her but we’re not quite sure if they mean to do her harm or keep her safe (and if so, from what?)

And then there is our third thread—our heroine of sorts, Victoria Jones works as a steno/typist in a firm. She is quite bad at her job, and is fired when caught mimicking the boss’s wife. Not completely put out by this, she takes her lunch to the park where she runs into and falls in love at first sight with the very handsome Edward. But she learns that Edward (formerly in the RAF) is to travel to Baghdad for his work—with a Mr Rathbone who works in cultural promotion though an organisation called the Olive Branch where translated classics are taken around the world. Edward also tells her he feels not all is right with the organisation but in his position work is hard to come by and he must stick by it. Victoria, in love, and with no job decides to travel to Baghdad. But how will a penniless girl do that? Luck it seems is in her favour and she manages with her talent for sprouting lies at the drop of a hat to secure a position as companion to travel with an American lady Mrs Hamilton Clipp, who is heading to Baghdad to visit her married daughter but can’t travel on her own because of a broken arm.

In Baghdad, Victoria is at a loss for what to do though she is sure Edward (whose last name she doesn’t know at this point) will find her work. But before she can even find him, a wounded man stumbles into her hotel room and dies—he’d been stabbed. Soon she is drawn into an adventure beyond her imagining, and finds herself falling further and further into it.

Agatha Christie’s espionage and thriller books as readers and fans will know are on a completely different plane from her mysteries, because really, her ‘cloak-and-dagger’, hush-hush international secret plots don’t feel as credible or strong as her mysteries, but at the same time, if one suspends disbelief a little, I think these can be a good deal of fun because she does do suspense really well. This book much more than some of her others in this category that I’ve read recently (The Man in the Brown Suit, for one) falls within the espionage/thriller category, to the point that unlike some of these others, there isn’t a traditional murder mystery at its heart, though there is a mystery and there are murders.

Still, the suspense is kept up throughout and quite well, so one doesn’t really know what the solution will turn out to be, who can and can’t be trusted and how our heroine will get out of the soup she lands herself into. Though I have read this one before, and I did vaguely remember the solution, the book still held my interest throughout (one never does remember all the details and subplots), and I know the first time I didn’t guess anything correctly.

The espionage and world powers thread does have its basis in the developments of the day for this book was written in the early years of the cold war; and just a few years after the Second World War so the shadows of the war and the tensions, fears and insecurities of the period do reflect in the book—and would have been something people would have related to far more back then. Also perhaps, the philosophy or idea related to the solution may have been something again popular in the period but I won’t go into it since it would be a spoiler.

But apart from the ‘hush-hush’ elements, we also have the colour and feel of the Middle East (which Christie would have experienced on her trips with her husband Max Mallowan), and we see the place and its sights as an English traveller back then would have—not just the physical place, but attitudes towards time, food, etc. (there was perhaps a certain sneer in her tone in some places I felt, but other aspects like the impatience of the West are acknowledged as well). But it was fun nonetheless. Also we have the Archaeological dig where Victoria ends up (headed by the very eccentric Dr Pauncefoot Jones), where again one can see Christie’s own experiences reflected—in the work, the finds (pottery shards to be put together, almost like pieces of a puzzle), flows of visitors, and such. This was something that I also enjoyed very much.

Our heroine, Victoria, mightn’t be the most truthful of people but she has a great deal of spunk, and she reminded me at one level of the heroine of The Man in the Brown Suit, Ann Beddingford, ready to just get up and go after adventure, with next to nothing in their pockets, and only themselves to rely on. She does pretty well for herself in the process, and acts rather sensibly much of the time, which made one want to cheer her on.

This was a fun read for me in which the elements of suspense and the setting (both the Middle East and Archaeological dig) were my favourite aspects. ...more

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Jun 03, 2018 Teri-K rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery-golden-age

I really enjoyed this light, fun book about a young, innocent girl who gets caught up in international intrigue. Without holding the heroine up as a paragon of virtue or anything, I found I kind of admired her. She was resourceful, imaginative, and brave. Her experiences when she arrived in Baghdad and as an untrained worker at an archaeological site felt quite real, and since Christie had those experiences herself I'm sure she drew upon them. The story moved quickly and even though I think I'd ...more

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Aug 20, 2021 Frances rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is an Agatha Christie spy/adventure thriller, and a fun romp through the European version of Iraq/Baghdad of the ?1940's, with lots of archeological tidbits thrown in, from Christie's own experience. Victoria Jones, a spunky but not particularly good short-hand typist in London, experiences love at first site one afternoon, only to find that the object of her affections is off to Baghdad the next day. Undeterred, she decides to follow him despite having no money and no knowledge of the area ...more

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Nov 26, 2018 Paperbackreader rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: all-collections, read-but-unowned, british, classic, spy, audiobook

A cold war era thriller from the queen of crime? I did not have much hope for this one. But it turned out to be surprisingly suspenseful! Sure, there are plotholes and sketchy characterization but the fast paced lucid narrative kept me hooked. Victoria Jones is one of the pluckiest Christie heroines I have met. She is rather naïve at times, but her capacity to improvise on the spot made her an enjoyable character. (view spoiler) ...more

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Sep 12, 2017 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime-mystery-fiction, spy-novels, british-golden-age-mysteries

I thought this was a really entertaining read, with engaging characters. At times, it reminded me of a cross between a spy novel and a 1930s screwball comedy -- parts were quite funny.

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Aug 28, 2019 Becky rated it it was amazing

Fantastic! A Christie masterpiece!

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Jul 15, 2013 Lynnie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crime, read-in-2022, read-in-1980s, favourites, espionage, adventures-abroad, archaeology-suspense, read-in-2010s, read-in-2000s, comfort-reads

Fourth time reading this fun and entertaining cold war thriller. I still love it!

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