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Bionic Jean's Reviews > Murder In Mesopotamia
Murder In Mesopotamia
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Murder in Mesopotamia � what an exotic title to roll off the tongue; conjuring up intrigue and mystery, in a faraway place and a bygone age.
Mesopotamia was an ancient region located in the eastern Mediterranean, which no longer exists as a country. The literal translation is “between two rivers�, and these rivers are the Tigris and the Euphrates. Mesopotamia corresponds mostly to today’s Iraq, but also includes parts of modern-day Iran, Syria and Turkey.
Such facts may destroy the dreamlike romance and mystery of the name “Mesopotamia�. Agatha Christie, could of course not have known the air of nostalgia and mystery she conjured up for 21st century readers, by this title. She just happened to be in the area at the time.
In 1936, Agatha Christie’s husband, the archaeologist Max Mallowen, was working on the settlement mound, at Chagar Bazar in Northern Syria. It was a productive dig, resulting in the find of 70 cuneiform tablets from the Assyrian Royal family around the year 1800 BC.
The Mallowans took many photographs of their daily life, which show Agatha Christie’s interest and involvement, but primarily she was a writer. The glass plates and and celluloid film, all in monochrome, show a clear picture of life in the desert at that time. For much of the time, however, while Agatha Christie’s husband and his team were busy excavating nearby, she would be tapping away at her portable typewriter in her tent.
Perhaps other writers, feeling homesick, would distance themselves from this, and write stories to remind them of their English home, but that was not Agatha Christie’s way. Well established now as the Queen of Crime, she knuckled down and used the material to hand, both of her environment, the daily routine, (and even most extraordinarily, some of the individuals). She created Murder in Mesopotamia.
The original cover design was by Robin McCartney, a colleague on Max Mallowen’s digs. He designed four of Agatha Christie’s dust-jackets in all. In this one from 1936, he depicts a stylised version of a dig in historic times:
But which of her detectives would be well-placed at an archaeological dig? Agatha Christie did not want to invent a new detective, but Miss Marple would certainly feel out of place here. The well-travelled Hercule Poirot, with his many connections and language skills, would surely be a far better choice.
Sadly though, Captain Arthur Hastings is not in evidence. Presumably he is attending to his ranch in South America. To take his place as chronicler, for the first part of the novel, Agatha Christie invents a new narrator, the nurse Amy Leatheran. For reasons we do not know at the beginning, she has been asked to record the events of the past few days, by a Dr Giles Reilly � the doctor in the nearest small town of Hassanieh, (and also an old friend of Poirot).
We may not know the reason, but we can have a good guess!
Dr Reilly has asked Amy Leatheran if she would be willing to take on an unusual position. Dr Eric Leidner, a Swedish-American archaeologist, is concerned about his wife, Louise. He would like to employ a nurse to be a companion and carer for her. Nobody is quite sure what her function is to be, least of all the nurse herself. Everyone at the dig has an opinion about Louis Leidner. Nurse Leatheran finds her to be likeable and charismatic, but some others seem to either detest or despise her. Her husband may be devoted to her, but Louise Leidner is generally considered to be hysterical and delusional, even claiming that someone is out to kill her.
At other times Louise Leatheran does seem to like to exert her authority. Is she cruelly manipulating the male members of the dig, or are the heightened feelings of the expedition simply due to having to live in such close proximity in spartan conditions for an extended period of time? There are anonymous letters, to be sure, but might she have written these herself? Nurse Leatheran is not sure, and neither are we.
As we read on, we learn of the various members. Firstly there are Eric and Louise Leidner, and Dr Leidner’s assistant and colleague Anne Johnson, from Yorkshire. Dr Leidner’s main assistant is the handsome Richard Carey. There is another archaeological colleague of his, Joseph Mercado, who has assisted Dr Leidner on his dig for the past two years, although now he often seems fatigued and worn. His wife Marie Mercado seems devoted to Joseph Mercado, and particularly hostile to Louise Leidner.
“I hate her so ... She's the sort of woman who's never had a row with anyone in her life - but rows always happen where she is. She makes them happen ... She must have drama!�
There are four other members of the team. David Emmott is a quiet young American man, whom Nurse Leatheran has summed up as being calm and self-possessed, and probably good in a crisis. He has been with the team for two years. Another young man is Bill Coleman, who has only been there for a year, as has Carl Reiter, a young American from Chicago. Carl Reiter is there as a photographer, and his youth and social awkwardness mean he is an easy target for Louise Leidner’s ridicule. The fourth member of the extended team is Father Lavigny, a French cleric, who has not been there long. He is a specialist in epigraphy, and studies the inscriptions on any discoveries they make. Sheila Reilly, the confident and outspoken daughter of Dr Reilly, is a frequent visitor. She clearly expects all the young men to pay her court.
It is clear that this is a hot-house of emotional tensions. There is underlying resentment of various kinds. Some of the members of the dig are overly formal and polite with one another, and others barely conceal their dislike. Moods swing from one extreme to the other. Yet Nurse Leatheran is assured by several people that the atmosphere used to be friendly and informal. What has been the catalyst for this? Has Dr Leidner made an unsuitable marriage? And is his wife as scared out of her wits as she seems to be? Or is everyone just tired and stressed?
We have been presented with a plan of the living accommodation, with all the rooms adjacent in a square, around a centre courtyard. This is Agatha Christie! We know that this is material, and that something will happen before too long, and it does.
There is a murder, in a locked room of course. And everyone seems to have an alibi. A Captain Maitland arrives; he is the British policeman in charge of the murder investigation, and Dr Reilly assists him. The reader is likely to suspect that they will not get very far in their investigations.
Sure enough, chapter 13 (there are 29 chapters) is entitled “Hercule Poirot Arrives�. We sit up. Nurse Amy Leatheran’s account has been entertaining enough � she seems a good body, honest and sensible, quick-witted but not overly bright � but now the real fun begins. Here is her account of him:
“I don’t know what I’d imagined � something rather like Sherlock Holmes � long and lean with a keen, clever face. Of course I knew he was a foreigner, but I hadn’t expected him to be quite as foreign as he was, if you know what I mean.
When you saw him you just wanted to laugh! He was like something on the stage or at the pictures. To begin with, he wasn’t above five foot five, I should think � an odd, plump little man, quite old, with an enormous moustache, and a head like an egg. He looked like a hairdresser in a comic play.
And this was the man who was going to find out who killed (view spoiler)!�
And we have plenty of clues to play with. Everyone has secrets to hide, and more than one person is not who they seem. There are intriguing hidden back stories, one dating back to the First World War. There are switched identities, disguises, anonymous letters, thefts, forgeries, masks, hydrochloric acid, and at least two murders. It is an exciting audacious tale, which will keep you guessing right until the end.
However, although the explanations is as original and ingenious as we have come to expect of Agatha Christie, I do not consider Murder in Mesopotamia to be one of her best novels. There were occasions where I did not quite feel that the characters were behaving in a believable fashion. One may have been a little too hysterical; one a little too sullen. One a little too off-hand, or a little too jaunty, or stubborn, or un-noticing, or a host of other emotions. The hand of the puppeteer was perhaps a little too much in evidence.
Nurse Amy Leatheran was a delight, and the first dozen chapters narrated by her were lively and amusing, with observations such as:
“Poirot scrutinised [the letters] carefully as he did so. I was rather disappointed that he didn’t dust powder over them or examine them with a microscope or anything like that - but I realised that he wasn’t a very young man and that his methods were probably not very up to date. He just read them in the way that anyone might read a letter.�
I enjoyed the back story too, about Louise Leidner’s first husband Frederick Bosner, (view spoiler)
It did not ring true either, that all the male members of the archaeological team were in love with Louise, who seemed to enjoy making people look small. Neither did I believe a rivalry could exist between such a sophisticated woman and a far younger one, Sheila Reilly. She was spoilt, certainly, this daughter of the doctor, but too mannered and keen to strike a pose, to be cleverly manipulative.
But worst was the far-fetched method of the main murder, which I found barely credible. (view spoiler)
Murder in Mesopotamia was a risky novel for Agatha Christie to publish, for other reasons. It was to some extent a roman-à-clef, and she must have worried that it could result in a libel suit. According to Max Mallowen in his autobiography, Agatha Christie had written herself as nurse Amy Leatheran, and himself as the cheerful dependable David Emmott. These pictures from life were not too much to worry about.
However the Leidner couple were instantly recognisable. The character of Dr Eric Leidner was based on Leonard Woolley, the leading archaeologist of the expedition Max Mallowen was working on. In real life, his overbearing wife Katherine apparently made life difficult for everyone around her, and unbearable for some. She was clearly the prototype for Louise Leidner. Yet neither of these ever commented on Agatha Christie’s inclusion of them into her latest murder mystery!
Murder in Mesopotamia is an entertaining puzzle, but this fourteenth entry into the Hercule Poirot oeuvre is, I feel, just a little too melodramatic to be in the top rank of Agatha Christie’s novels.
“Murder is a habit. The man or woman who kills once will kill again.� - Hercule Poirot
�'Always it is unwise to parade one’s knowledge. Until the last minute I keep everything here,� he tapped his forehead. At the right moment � I make the spring � like the panther � and, mon Dieu! the consternation!'
I couldn’t help laughing to myself at little M. Poirot in the role of a panther.� - Nurse Amy Leatheran
Mesopotamia was an ancient region located in the eastern Mediterranean, which no longer exists as a country. The literal translation is “between two rivers�, and these rivers are the Tigris and the Euphrates. Mesopotamia corresponds mostly to today’s Iraq, but also includes parts of modern-day Iran, Syria and Turkey.
Such facts may destroy the dreamlike romance and mystery of the name “Mesopotamia�. Agatha Christie, could of course not have known the air of nostalgia and mystery she conjured up for 21st century readers, by this title. She just happened to be in the area at the time.
In 1936, Agatha Christie’s husband, the archaeologist Max Mallowen, was working on the settlement mound, at Chagar Bazar in Northern Syria. It was a productive dig, resulting in the find of 70 cuneiform tablets from the Assyrian Royal family around the year 1800 BC.
The Mallowans took many photographs of their daily life, which show Agatha Christie’s interest and involvement, but primarily she was a writer. The glass plates and and celluloid film, all in monochrome, show a clear picture of life in the desert at that time. For much of the time, however, while Agatha Christie’s husband and his team were busy excavating nearby, she would be tapping away at her portable typewriter in her tent.
Perhaps other writers, feeling homesick, would distance themselves from this, and write stories to remind them of their English home, but that was not Agatha Christie’s way. Well established now as the Queen of Crime, she knuckled down and used the material to hand, both of her environment, the daily routine, (and even most extraordinarily, some of the individuals). She created Murder in Mesopotamia.
The original cover design was by Robin McCartney, a colleague on Max Mallowen’s digs. He designed four of Agatha Christie’s dust-jackets in all. In this one from 1936, he depicts a stylised version of a dig in historic times:
But which of her detectives would be well-placed at an archaeological dig? Agatha Christie did not want to invent a new detective, but Miss Marple would certainly feel out of place here. The well-travelled Hercule Poirot, with his many connections and language skills, would surely be a far better choice.
Sadly though, Captain Arthur Hastings is not in evidence. Presumably he is attending to his ranch in South America. To take his place as chronicler, for the first part of the novel, Agatha Christie invents a new narrator, the nurse Amy Leatheran. For reasons we do not know at the beginning, she has been asked to record the events of the past few days, by a Dr Giles Reilly � the doctor in the nearest small town of Hassanieh, (and also an old friend of Poirot).
We may not know the reason, but we can have a good guess!
Dr Reilly has asked Amy Leatheran if she would be willing to take on an unusual position. Dr Eric Leidner, a Swedish-American archaeologist, is concerned about his wife, Louise. He would like to employ a nurse to be a companion and carer for her. Nobody is quite sure what her function is to be, least of all the nurse herself. Everyone at the dig has an opinion about Louis Leidner. Nurse Leatheran finds her to be likeable and charismatic, but some others seem to either detest or despise her. Her husband may be devoted to her, but Louise Leidner is generally considered to be hysterical and delusional, even claiming that someone is out to kill her.
At other times Louise Leatheran does seem to like to exert her authority. Is she cruelly manipulating the male members of the dig, or are the heightened feelings of the expedition simply due to having to live in such close proximity in spartan conditions for an extended period of time? There are anonymous letters, to be sure, but might she have written these herself? Nurse Leatheran is not sure, and neither are we.
As we read on, we learn of the various members. Firstly there are Eric and Louise Leidner, and Dr Leidner’s assistant and colleague Anne Johnson, from Yorkshire. Dr Leidner’s main assistant is the handsome Richard Carey. There is another archaeological colleague of his, Joseph Mercado, who has assisted Dr Leidner on his dig for the past two years, although now he often seems fatigued and worn. His wife Marie Mercado seems devoted to Joseph Mercado, and particularly hostile to Louise Leidner.
“I hate her so ... She's the sort of woman who's never had a row with anyone in her life - but rows always happen where she is. She makes them happen ... She must have drama!�
There are four other members of the team. David Emmott is a quiet young American man, whom Nurse Leatheran has summed up as being calm and self-possessed, and probably good in a crisis. He has been with the team for two years. Another young man is Bill Coleman, who has only been there for a year, as has Carl Reiter, a young American from Chicago. Carl Reiter is there as a photographer, and his youth and social awkwardness mean he is an easy target for Louise Leidner’s ridicule. The fourth member of the extended team is Father Lavigny, a French cleric, who has not been there long. He is a specialist in epigraphy, and studies the inscriptions on any discoveries they make. Sheila Reilly, the confident and outspoken daughter of Dr Reilly, is a frequent visitor. She clearly expects all the young men to pay her court.
It is clear that this is a hot-house of emotional tensions. There is underlying resentment of various kinds. Some of the members of the dig are overly formal and polite with one another, and others barely conceal their dislike. Moods swing from one extreme to the other. Yet Nurse Leatheran is assured by several people that the atmosphere used to be friendly and informal. What has been the catalyst for this? Has Dr Leidner made an unsuitable marriage? And is his wife as scared out of her wits as she seems to be? Or is everyone just tired and stressed?
We have been presented with a plan of the living accommodation, with all the rooms adjacent in a square, around a centre courtyard. This is Agatha Christie! We know that this is material, and that something will happen before too long, and it does.
There is a murder, in a locked room of course. And everyone seems to have an alibi. A Captain Maitland arrives; he is the British policeman in charge of the murder investigation, and Dr Reilly assists him. The reader is likely to suspect that they will not get very far in their investigations.
Sure enough, chapter 13 (there are 29 chapters) is entitled “Hercule Poirot Arrives�. We sit up. Nurse Amy Leatheran’s account has been entertaining enough � she seems a good body, honest and sensible, quick-witted but not overly bright � but now the real fun begins. Here is her account of him:
“I don’t know what I’d imagined � something rather like Sherlock Holmes � long and lean with a keen, clever face. Of course I knew he was a foreigner, but I hadn’t expected him to be quite as foreign as he was, if you know what I mean.
When you saw him you just wanted to laugh! He was like something on the stage or at the pictures. To begin with, he wasn’t above five foot five, I should think � an odd, plump little man, quite old, with an enormous moustache, and a head like an egg. He looked like a hairdresser in a comic play.
And this was the man who was going to find out who killed (view spoiler)!�
And we have plenty of clues to play with. Everyone has secrets to hide, and more than one person is not who they seem. There are intriguing hidden back stories, one dating back to the First World War. There are switched identities, disguises, anonymous letters, thefts, forgeries, masks, hydrochloric acid, and at least two murders. It is an exciting audacious tale, which will keep you guessing right until the end.
However, although the explanations is as original and ingenious as we have come to expect of Agatha Christie, I do not consider Murder in Mesopotamia to be one of her best novels. There were occasions where I did not quite feel that the characters were behaving in a believable fashion. One may have been a little too hysterical; one a little too sullen. One a little too off-hand, or a little too jaunty, or stubborn, or un-noticing, or a host of other emotions. The hand of the puppeteer was perhaps a little too much in evidence.
Nurse Amy Leatheran was a delight, and the first dozen chapters narrated by her were lively and amusing, with observations such as:
“Poirot scrutinised [the letters] carefully as he did so. I was rather disappointed that he didn’t dust powder over them or examine them with a microscope or anything like that - but I realised that he wasn’t a very young man and that his methods were probably not very up to date. He just read them in the way that anyone might read a letter.�
I enjoyed the back story too, about Louise Leidner’s first husband Frederick Bosner, (view spoiler)
It did not ring true either, that all the male members of the archaeological team were in love with Louise, who seemed to enjoy making people look small. Neither did I believe a rivalry could exist between such a sophisticated woman and a far younger one, Sheila Reilly. She was spoilt, certainly, this daughter of the doctor, but too mannered and keen to strike a pose, to be cleverly manipulative.
But worst was the far-fetched method of the main murder, which I found barely credible. (view spoiler)
Murder in Mesopotamia was a risky novel for Agatha Christie to publish, for other reasons. It was to some extent a roman-à-clef, and she must have worried that it could result in a libel suit. According to Max Mallowen in his autobiography, Agatha Christie had written herself as nurse Amy Leatheran, and himself as the cheerful dependable David Emmott. These pictures from life were not too much to worry about.
However the Leidner couple were instantly recognisable. The character of Dr Eric Leidner was based on Leonard Woolley, the leading archaeologist of the expedition Max Mallowen was working on. In real life, his overbearing wife Katherine apparently made life difficult for everyone around her, and unbearable for some. She was clearly the prototype for Louise Leidner. Yet neither of these ever commented on Agatha Christie’s inclusion of them into her latest murder mystery!
Murder in Mesopotamia is an entertaining puzzle, but this fourteenth entry into the Hercule Poirot oeuvre is, I feel, just a little too melodramatic to be in the top rank of Agatha Christie’s novels.
“Murder is a habit. The man or woman who kills once will kill again.� - Hercule Poirot
�'Always it is unwise to parade one’s knowledge. Until the last minute I keep everything here,� he tapped his forehead. At the right moment � I make the spring � like the panther � and, mon Dieu! the consternation!'
I couldn’t help laughing to myself at little M. Poirot in the role of a panther.� - Nurse Amy Leatheran
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John wrote: "Fabulous review, Jean. May never have read it before it went in the downsizing! So, have just downloaded the Audible version, read by Anna Massey. Looking forward to it!Thank you."
Thanks for the nice comment John, and I do hope you enjoy the read :) I should think Anna Massey will make a good narrator.
From what I can remember the first time I read this and her books written in faraway places, I enjoyed learning about different locales and cultures. A new film version of "Death on the Nile" is being released soon,
Ian wrote: "A new film version of "Death on the Nile" is being released soon..."That's interesting Ian! Thanks for the heads-up.
Excellent analysis. Solution too improbable for words, yes � but fascinating that Agatha, in her absolute prime, should have decided it was the right one. Compare to similar improbability in the 1966 The Third � the killer’s double life, moving between city and country, using a blonde wig and makeup as means of disguise. Wonder what the Woolleys thought of it. The very strange Mrs W was a tremendous fan of Agatha’s…she might have been flattered, actually.You missed a ‘not� � However, I did…believe that Louise�
this was my first book ever by Agatha Christie :-) I was 12 and I found it among my granddad books. I read it and so it started my love for mysteries.It's not my favorite one by Christie, but it always will remember me my beloved granddad. He used to love mysteries too... :-)
Tiziana wrote: "this was my first book ever by Agatha Christie :-) I was 12 and I found it among my granddad books. I read it and so it started my love for mysteries.It's not my favorite one by Christie, but it ..."
I love memories like that Tizi! Thanks for sharing yours 😊
Bionic Jean wrote: "Tiziana wrote: "this was my first book ever by Agatha Christie :-) I was 12 and I found it among my granddad books. I read it and so it started my love for mysteries.It's not my favorite one by C..."
You're always so kind to me, sending you hugs Jean ! 😊
Happy week-end!
Thank you.