Murder in Mesopotamia

First Published: 1936

Setting: Tell Yarimjah, Mesopotamia (Iraq)

Starring: Hercule Poirot, Nurse Letheran, Dr. and Mrs. Leidner

Important Other People: Dr. Reilly, Richard Carey

This is the first of a few novels that takes place in the Middle East. Agatha was enamored with the area and often accompanied her husband, an archaeologist, on expeditions there. She fell in love with the area and set many of her plots there, this being the first.

Interesting facts: The story is supposed to take place three years earlier than when it was published, right before Hercule went on the Orient Express and came in contact with another murder.

Favorite? No. I don't like Nurse Letheran as a narrator, and the outcome is so far fetched... would you really not recognize someone after a long period of time? It seems so unlikely. I need to hear of something like that happening for real in order to believe it.

Death by: Cosh, Hydrochloric acid (ingested)

Body Count: 2; Cumulative: 43

The Count: Poirot-12, Miss. Marple-1, Tommy and Tuppence-1, Hastings-6, Japp-6, Colonel Race-1, Superintendent Battle-2, George-1, Goby-1, No Recurring Character- 2

Agatha's Life Lessons: Husbands are credulous where illness is concerned. Life's not long enough to be bored. A lady seldom displays curiosity about one's private affairs. Really important people don't need to throw their weight about. Whenever women are cooped up together, there's bound to be jealousy. It's bottling things up that makes them get on your nerves. Murder is a habit. Excuses are not explanations. Marriage changes things. Women are realists. What's happened has happened and can't be mended. A woman who doesn't lie is without imagination and sympathy. However deep you bury and unpleasantness a dog will always dig it up again. Women can put up with a lot when they've got what they want. There is no hatred so great as that of a man who has been made to love a woman against his will.

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