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Although I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie, I much prefer her mysteries/crime novels to her adventure type books. Written in 1951, this is very much an adventure, with a bored young secretary, Victoria Jones, following a young man she met in a park, to Baghdad on a whim.

This throws her into a fantastic - and dangerous - conspiracy. There have been rumours of a meeting of superpowers to be held in the city, while a shadowy group are attempting to stop it. This results in Victoria having a man dying in her room, being chloroformed, imprisoned and even, like Christie herself, ending up on an archaeologists dig, posing as the archaeologist's niece.

All good fun, with plenty of false leads, conspiracies, bizarre characters and a great setting, which Christie knew well. Still, I must admit I yearned for a country house and some poison....