欧宝娱乐

Agatha Christie married archaeologist Max Mallowan in 1930 (she was 40, he was only 26 -- Go Agatha!) and thereafter spent months at a time every year (with the exception of some years during WWII) in the Middle East on digs. She wrote many of her novels in a small mud closet with only a card table to hold her typewriter and a wooden chair to sit on. The locals actually considered her very extravagant for this. She also helped clean, sketch and photograph the artifacts they uncovered.

As she had used her knowledge gained from working in a dispensary during WWI to write very clever murders done by poisoning, she now used her experience in Iraq to write a character study of the interplay of personalities on an archaeological dig. The characters of Dr. Eric Leidner and his wife Louise were based on people Christie knew in real life, famous archaeologist Leonard Woolley and his wife Katherine. Max Mallowan worked under Woolley for several years. The mystery is, as usual, brilliant but simple and pretty much staring you in the face. Her ability to make the reader disregard the obvious is what makes Christie a master.