Murder in Mesopotamia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Murder in Mesopotamia
Cover of “Murder in Mesopotamia”
Author Agatha Christie
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Hercule Poirot
Genre(s) Crime novel
Publisher Harper Collins
Released 1936
Media Type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN NA
Preceded by The A.B.C. Murders
Followed by Cards on the Table

Murder in Mesopotamia (published in 1936) is a detective novel by Agatha Christie, featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The novel is set at an archaeological excavation in Iraq, and descriptive details derive from the author's visit to the Royal Cemetery at Ur with her husband, Sir Max Mallowan, and other British archaeologists.

[edit] Plot summary

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?

Hercule Poirot - by lucky coincidence travelling in the region - is called in to solve the crime.

[edit] Trivia

Although this novel was published in 1936, the events described took place three years earlier. It is when he returns from Mesopotamia that Poirot travels on the Orient Express and solves the murder that takes place aboard it.

Amy Leatheran is only the third first-person narrator to write up one of Poirot's investigations, after Dr. Sheppard (in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd) and Hastings.


Agatha Christie
Detectives: Hercule PoirotMiss MarpleTommy and TuppenceAriadne OliverArthur HastingsSuperintendent BattleChief Inspector JappParker Pyne
Novels: The Mysterious Affair at StylesThe Secret AdversaryMurder on the LinksThe Man in the Brown SuitThe Secret of ChimneysThe Murder of Roger AckroydThe Big FourThe Mystery of the Blue TrainThe Seven Dials MysteryThe Murder at the VicarageThe Sittaford MysteryPeril at End HouseLord Edgware DiesMurder on the Orient ExpressThree Act TragedyWhy Didn't They Ask Evans?Death in the CloudsThe A.B.C. MurdersMurder in MesopotamiaCards on the TableDeath on the NileDumb WitnessAppointment with DeathAnd Then There Were NoneMurder is EasyHercule Poirot's ChristmasSad CypressEvil Under the SunN or M?One, Two, Buckle My ShoeThe Body in the LibraryFive Little PigsThe Moving FingerTowards ZeroSparkling CyanideDeath Comes as the EndThe HollowTaken at the FloodCrooked HouseA Murder is AnnouncedThey Came to BaghdadMrs McGinty's DeadThey Do It with MirrorsA Pocket Full of RyeAfter the FuneralHickory Dickory DockDestination UnknownDead Man's Folly4.50 From PaddingtonOrdeal by InnocenceCat Among the PigeonsThe Pale HorseThe Mirror Crack'd from Side to SideThe ClocksA Caribbean MysteryAt Bertram's HotelThird GirlEndless NightBy the Pricking of My ThumbsHallowe'en PartyPassenger to FrankfurtNemesisElephants Can RememberPostern of FateCurtainSleeping Murder
As Mary Westmacott: Giant's BreadUnfinished PortraitAbsent in the SpringThe Rose and the Yew TreeA Daughter's a DaughterThe Burden
Short story collections: Poirot InvestigatesPartners in CrimeThe Mysterious Mr. QuinThe Hound of DeathThe Thirteen ProblemsParker Pyne InvestigatesThe Listerdale MysteryMurder in the MewsThe Regatta MysteryThe Labours of HerculesPoirot's Early CasesThe Harlequin Tea Set
Plays: AkhnatonThe MousetrapWitness for the ProsecutionVerdictRule of ThreeFiddlers Three
In other languages