Murder in Mesopotamia
Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition
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| Author | Agatha Christie |
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| Cover artist | Robin Macartney |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Collins Crime Club |
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Publication date
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6 July 1936 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 288 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| Preceded by | The A.B.C. Murders |
| Followed by | Cards on the Table |
Murder in Mesopotamia is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 6 July 1936 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.
The book features Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The novel is set at an archaeological excavation in Iraq, and descriptive details derive from the author's visit to the Royal Cemetery at Ur where she met her husband, Sir Max Mallowan, and other British archaeologists. It was adapted for television in 2002.
Amy Leatheran, a nurse, is hired to care for Louise Leidner by her husband Dr Erich Leidner, a Swedish archaeologist, who married Louise two years earlier. They are on a dig near Hassanieh, Iraq, then a British protectorate. Louise was married briefly during the Great War 15 years earlier to a German named Frederick Bosner, who worked for the US State Department but was actually a German spy. Bosner was turned in by Louise, tried for espionage and sentenced to death. He managed to escape while he was being transported but his train crashed; a body bearing his identification was found in the wreckage. Louise has received letters purporting to be from her first husband, which puts her on edge.
A week after the nurse's arrival, Mrs Leidner is found dead by her husband in her room, struck fatally on the head with a large blunt object. Nurse Leatheran observes that the murder weapon is not in the room. Captain Maitland speaks with all in the house, while Dr Reilly inspects the body. They establish the timeline and become certain the crime is an inside job. The Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is travelling in Iraq; his old friend Dr Reilly calls Poirot for aid.
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Wikipedia