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"You would have made a good archaeologist, M. Poirot. You have the gift of re-creating the past."
- Dr. Leidner, Murder in Mesopotamia, p. 226
The Sum of It:
With Murder in Mesopotamia, we are finally transported into the Middle Eastern world of archeological digs that was such a HUGE part of Agatha Christie's life. Set at a dig site in Hassanieh, Iraq, Murder in Mesopotamia is written from the point of view of straight-forward, but likable, Amy Leatheran, a nurse who has been hired to look after the wife of a famous archeologist, Dr. Eric Leidner. The "Lovely Louise" is beautiful and charming, but also a bit of a tease in every sense of the word: the ladies don't like her hitting on their men and the men don't like her poking fun at their insecurities. Louise also turns out to be a huge nervous wreck owing to the fact that she thinks her first husband (an American spy for the Germans in World War I, who she ended up turning in to the government, which led to him being shot as a traitor, but in fact he actually escaped and then maybe died in a train wreck? #oops) is actually alive and well and, according to the threatening letters he keeps sending her, is trying to track her down and kill her.
Nurse Leatheran has been around the dig site for basically a hot second when Louise is in fact MURDERED in her room during nap time, and it looks like the killer is one of the expedition team. Local law enforcement decide to bring in a big wig to solve the case, and the obvious candidate is our favorite Belgian, Hercule Poirot! Poirot appoints Nurse Leatheran as Hastings-Stand-In and the two of them commence their investigations. Was Louise killed by her first husband or his brother in disguise? Or did one of their group want her dead for a more personal reason?
The YOA Treatment:
A bit of background/Agatha personal life refresher: after divorcing her first husband, Archie (#booarchie #archiesux) Agatha visited a dig site in Ur with some friends and met Max Mallowan (#teammax), who would eventually become her second husband. Over the course of their marriage, Agatha traveled with Max to the Middle East to work together at his dig site. Agatha talks about how much she enjoyed these trips and how she was able to not only assist Max with his excavations, but also spend a good amount of time writing her mystery novels in her book on these excursions, Come, Tell Me How You Live. Her intimate knowledge of the life of an archeologist and ancient cultures clearly shows in the details of her novels Murder in Mesopotamia, Appointment with Death, and Death Comes as the End.
I have always liked this story - the Middle Eastern setting is an interesting change from her normal English Countryside and/or London, and the cast of characters is one of my favorites of all her books. You can see how her extensive stays on dig sites offered excellent ideas for the wide variety of personalities found in Murder in Mesopotamia: the hypochondriac, the jealous girly girl, the brooding hottie, the bumbling intern, the sketchy translator, and the mean girl from town who always has three or four dates to the dance. The female narration from Nurse Leatheran also offers a different perspective from other Agatha books, including the opportunity to wax eloquent about the expedition's resident total babe, Richard Carey:"I could see clearly a little pulse that beat in his temple. He looked simply splendid! So lean and so brown - and that wonderful jaw, hard and square. I don't wonder women fell for that man."
It's great to "see" through her writing how much Agatha was enjoying her new, happy married life and her new, lifelong hobby of Middle Eastern adventure.
-A.
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