Murder in Mesopotamia
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| 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 the third first-person narrator to write up one of Poirot's investigations, and at least the fourth first-person narrator in one of Christie's novels, after Vicar Leonard Clement (in The Murder at the Vicarage), Dr. Sheppard (in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd) and Hastings.
[edit] TV Adaptation
ITV recently adapted the novel for TV in 2001. It starred David Suchet as Poirot.
