by
Audiobook Review
I’ve never read an Agatha Christie Poirot mystery written in such a way with a female telling the story instead of Hastings or Poirot himself. In MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA, a nurse, Amy Leatheran, is charged with writing up the account of this very perplexing murder from her own point of view. It’s refreshing to hear her tell her story, not knowing where to start or what to include, and then taking off just fine.
The nurse accepts the assignment at an archaeological dig in Iraq at the request of the project head, Doctor Leidner. His wife is in a “nervous state” and claims to be seeing and hearing weird things, such as tapping at her window and skeletal faces peering in at her. She is also receiving letters that threaten her life.
Although most of the others in attendance view her hysteria as “mental” or maybe made up, Nurse Leatheran tends to believe her. Sure enough, Mrs. Leidner is soon murdered…in an impossible way. (Of course, my first thought was “the Curse of the Pharaoh.” haha)
Doctors and police are called in, but the death, while believed a murder, stumps even the cleverest. How could it have happened? Dead in her own room, with the only access being the one door many people had in view all afternoon.
Nurse L. is very observant and tries to piece clues together. She has her suspicions about WHO but no ideas whatsoever about HOW the murder could have been done. And thus enters – pretty conveniently, I think – the great detective Hercule Poirot, who just “happens” to be in the Middle East after clearing another case. He gladly accepts the challenge of the “watched room” murder and eagerly uses our Nurse L. as his helper-spy until it gets too dangerous for her too. (More bodies drop!)
The mystery was perplexing and seemed unsolvable to me until that little Belgian detective appeared. And then, of course, in his denouement, EVERYTHING is explained and looks entirely possible.
I also enjoyed the older woman narrator, with only a few bumbles.
Words and Reviews 