Murder in Mesopotamia: Book Review

Today we will be reviewing Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie, the 14^th book in the Hercule Poirot series. Find out what we thought of this novel and if you should read it next!

Murder in Mesopotamia Summary

Nurse Amy Leatheran is asked to tell this story, giving the reader an outside perspective and learning about the people surrounding the murder. Leatheran was approached by Swedish-American archaeologist, Dr Eric Leidner to help his wife Louise who is paranoid. 

Leatheran travels to at an archaeological dig near Hassanieh, Iraq and is introduced the crew and she soon learns that the atmosphere there is odd. She soon learns of Louise’s standing in the group and how everyone feels about her. 

Louise tells the nurse about her first husband and how he has been sending her letters threatening her because she got married again. Soon after, Louise is murdered while in her room, supposedly by someone that is part of the crew.

Hercule Poirot was luckily passing by and was asked to solve the murder and find out who killed Louise and why. Can Poirot solve this mystery before the criminal strikes again or gets away?

Commentary 

Murder in Mesopotamia was released in 1936 in both the U.K and in the U.S. I enjoyed reading it and the mystery at hand is a good one. The only problem I have is that nobody is going to correctly guess how the murder happened. 

If you have read enough Agatha Christie novels like I have, then you can guess the murderer. Still, it was my third pick and that was only when I remembered who the author was. 

Nurse Amy Leatheran is an okay protagonist and one that you won’t remember after reading the novel. This novel was inspired by Christie’s own experiences of visiting the Royal Cemetery at Ur, Iraq. You will definitely see some shade thrown by Christie towards Iraq and how much superior her own country is. 

Overall, I liked the novel and it is a good mystery. I didn’t enjoy the protagonist of the novel and could have done without it. Amy does her job but she feels very formulaic and hollow. The novel foreshadows a murderer throughout the whole novel and it gets very tiring. At one point, I was saying get to the murder that everyone, including the characters, knew was inevitable.

That just felt funny, that the characters somehow knew that they were in an Agatha Christie novel. 

Conclusion

If you are a big Christie fan like me, then you will definitely like this but if you are an avid reader, then you’re not missing out on anything if you don’t read this novel. Happy reading!

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