Death by Physics: Murder in Mesopotamia 2.0 | 1936

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“Nurse Leatheran has been giving me valuable information about the various members of the expedition. Incidentally I have learnt a good deal - about the victim. And the victim, mademoiselle, is very often the clue to the mystery.” - Murder in Mesopotamia

The Sum of It:

Matter-of-fact nurse Amy Leatheran is spending some time in the Middle East, and just as she's planning to go home, she's offered a position tending to the wife of an archaeologist out on a dig and she's basically like "well, nothing better to do, sure" so off she goes to live among the various characters on the camp out in the desert. She quickly learns that Louise, the woman she's been assigned to care for, who's got a bit of a "nervous" condition, also has an interesting reputation among those in their small community. Though she seems to have a bit of a hold over the men, none seem to like her very much, with the exception of her husband who seems to worship her. The women nearly all despise her as a massive flirt and a bit of a biddy. Turns out Louise needs care because she's super paranoid that someone, namely her former husband who's supposed to be dead but has been sending her threatening letters every time she gets into a relationship, is trying to kill her. Yikes. Amy isn't really sure what to think, but when Louise quite quickly turns up dead of a mysterious head injury during rest time shortly after Amy's arrival, Amy is willing to help the big shot detective who comes in to solve the mystery (none other than Poirot) get to the bottom of things.

The YOA Treatment:

Though the murder method in this book borders on the physically impossible, the characters involved truly do make this one a who-dunnit, even for someone who's seen the television adaptation before (Audrey can never figure out how I can completely forget the key information about some of these stories, another mystery!) The character of Louise is so vividly written as someone nearly anybody would love to hate that each motive seems quite likely, and I changed my mind several times throughout reading about who the murderer was. The setting, given Agatha's fondness for the Middle East, and archaeological sites in particular thanks to #Max, was beautifully painted and provided a unique sense of place for the story. Amy was the narrator for this book, and she wasn't my favorite as Poirot narrators go, spent a good deal of time discussing details I found unnecessary to the story as a way to establish that she was a methodical person, which I could have done without. I found this to be a solid mystery, if slightly less charming than many of Agatha's books. Not my favorite, but certainly not my least favorite (looking at you, Harley Quin)! 

- E. 

Bonus Read: Ruth Ware's The Woman in Cabin 10 | 2016

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"It was the noise of the veranda door in the next cabin sliding gentle open. I held my breath, straining to hear. And then there was a splash. Not a small splash. No, this was a big splash. The kind of splash made by a body hitting water." -The Woman in Cabin 10, p. 85

The Sum of It:
Mystery-loving friends: do yourselves a favor and find yourself a copy of Ruth Ware's The Woman in Cabin 10 just as soon as you possible can. I found this book on a list of the top-selling books of 2016, and my interest was further piqued when I saw the dust jacket touting its reminiscence of Dame Agatha's works. #sold! I ordered the book, thinking I would tuck it away for some future air travel, but then, of course, when it arrived I decided to just read the first chapter to see if I liked it. To say I couldn't put it down was an understatement! This is the kind of book you have to just devour because you just HAVE TO KNOW WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON!

So, brief summary: The Woman in Cabin 10 follows travel journalist Lo Blacklock (great name #AMurderisAnnounced) as she is invited on the maiden voyage of a super swank cruise ship to write travel updates on how awesomely luxurious it is. Sounds great, right? Alas, Lo is having a hard time enjoying her fancy surroundings because just days before she leaves she a) is pretty traumatically burgled in the middle of the night, and b) maybe breaks up with her boyfriend??? She's having a hard time sleeping because of burglar flashbacks and so is further terrified when she hears what sounds like a body being thrown into the sea from her neighbor's cabin (#CABIN10) and sees smears of blood on cabin 10's veranda. HOWEVER, after reporting the mysterious occupant of cabin 10 #MURDERED, she is shocked to find out no such woman was ever on board the ship. It's up to Lo's weary wits (I swear, this poor, frightened woman gets like 12 hours of sleep in a two week period) to find out which of her illustrious fellow passengers knows the story of the woman in cabin 10.

The YOA Treatment:
What I enjoyed so much about this book is its so classically Agatha Christie-esque setup. I was reminded of Murder on the Orient Express, Evil Under the Sun, Death on the Nile, and Murder in Mesopotamia as I read about a group of travelers with all the stereotypical characters you expect from a good whodunnit: the handsome aristocrat, the playboy photographer, the much younger model wife of a rich guy named Lars. There are evening gowns and attentive Scandinavian stewards and cocktails on cocktails. You basically expect Poirot himself to show up halfway through to help Lo put all the clues together. I will admit, as I neared the conclusion, I did have a little suspicion of how the story would work itself out (thanks for all the practice, Dame Agatha! #littlegraycells) and it does, in my opinion, get a smidge caper-y near the end for a bit longer than it should (#sorryRuth). HOWEVER, overall, I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants a read that will keep them up all night, dying to get to the last page.

-A.

The Tale of Jerry and Joanna: The Moving Finger | 1943

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"The great thing in these cases is to keep an absolutely open mind. Most crimes, you see, are so absurdly simple. This one was. Quite sane and straightforward—and quite understandable—in an unpleasant way, of course." - Miss Jane Marple, The Moving Finger, p. 180

The Sum of It:
The Moving Finger has always been one of my favorite Agatha stories (incidentally, it was one of her favorites too!): the plot is very clever, it has a lot of romance (always a plus), and has some very Tommy and Tuppence-esque witty characters in brother and sister protagonist duo Jerry and Joanna Burton.

Recently-injured-and-now-convelescing Jerry Burton (also this book's narrator) and his sister Joanna begin the book by moving to the small country village of Lymstock for some quality R&R. ALAS they find the village quite twitterpated because someone has been sending nasty anonymous letters to nearly every resident. Jerry and Joanna aren't really bothered by the whole thing, but are quite fascinated to know who is behind them. As they settle into their new house (called Little Furze #namegoals) they make nice with the neighbors, namely:

The Symmingtons: lawyer dad, neurotic mom, spacey yet lovable older daughter, two little boys, and a hot nanny.
Mr. Pye: eccentric bachelor who knows all the town gossip
The Dane Calthrops: Vicar and fairly terrifying wife
Miss Emily Barton: Jerry and Joanna's landlady (Bartons AND Burtons - that won't be confusing at all…will it?)
The Griffiths: Dr. Owen and nosy sister Aimee.
There is also an appropriate sprinkling of housekeepers and housemaids, etc.

The anonymous letters seem to just be an in-bad-taste prank until Mrs. Symmington is found #DEAD, apparently having committed suicide after reading one of the letters. It all seems a straightforward deal, but at the same time, something about it seems fishy and Jerry has more questions than the detectives are willing to ask. Things REALLY heat up when the Symmingtons's maid, Agnes Waddle, is found #MURDERED in a cupboard under the stairs (#notHarry'scupboard). Now that there's an actual murder to solve, a Superintendent Nash shows up to sort it all out. Or at least tries to...

BUT WAIT, you might ask (I certainly did), isn't this a Miss Marple book? Where is Miss Marple? Fear not, she does show up quite near the end as a seemingly random guest of the Dane Calthrops, knits unobtrusively during teas and get-togethers, chats with Jerry, and comes up with a sneaky little plan to oust the killer! I remember the first time I read this feeling SO confident that I had solved the whole thing, but of course the simple answer was quite different, yet right under my nose the whole time!

The YOA Treatment:
As with many of her novels, Agatha has chosen a man as the narrator for this novel. In much the same way as Luke Fitzgerald from Murder is Easy, Jerry Burton plays more of the being-nosy-from-the-sidelines sort of character instead of the pretty formal sidekick-esque Dr. Sheppard from Roger Ackroyd or observer who gets told a lot of secrets Leonard Clement from Murder at the Vicarage. I admire Agatha for not sticking too closely to a formulaic narration style. As much as I love the Hastings/Poirot repartee, you do know what to expect with a Hastings-narrated novel. Being open to telling her stories through the eyes of different men (and women! I'm lookin' at you, Nurse Amy Leatheren from Murder in Mesopotamia!) is part of what makes Dame Agatha such a writing star for me.

As I was considering the subject of narration, I found a couple of interesting articles about book narrators:

Check out this article about books with unreliable narrators and this article about books written by women with great male narrators

Spoiler alert: Agatha makes both lists :)

-A.

On Site with Poirot: Murder in Mesopotamia | 1936

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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.