They Came to Baghdad
Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition
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| Author | Agatha Christie |
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| Cover artist | No artwork |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Adventure novel / Political thriller |
| Publisher | Collins Crime Club |
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Publication date
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5 March 1951 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 256 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| Preceded by | Three Blind Mice and Other Stories |
| Followed by | The Under Dog and Other Stories |
They Came to Baghdad is an adventure novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 5 March 1951 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at eight shillings and sixpence (8/6) and the US edition at $2.50.
The book was inspired by Christie's own trips to Baghdad with her second husband, archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, and is also one of few Christie novels belonging to the action and spy fiction genres, rather than to mysteries and whodunnits.
A secret summit of superpowers is to be held in Baghdad, but it is no longer secret. A shadowy group (which is both anti-Communist and anti-Capitalist) is plotting to sabotage the event. Things get complicated when enthusiastic young "adventurer" Victoria Jones discovers a dying secret British agent – Henry "Fakir" Carmichael – in her hotel room. His last words – "Lucifer...Basrah...Lefarge" – propel her into investigation. "Lucifer" refers to the mastermind, Victoria's false lover Edward, who is behind the plot. "Basrah" is the city where Carmichael saw Edward and recognised him as an enemy. "Lefarge" turns out to actually be "Defarge" and is a reference to a Charles Dickens character; it is an allusion to the fact that the name of a vital witness has been stitched into a scarf. While Victoria is the central character, the real heroine is Anna Scheele, secretary/executive assistant to an American banker, who has discovered a great deal about finances of the shadowy group. She appears rather sparingly, with a few brief appearances in the early part of the story, then seems to vanish, to the chagrin of the evil organization who fear her financial knowledge and who want to liquidate her and by her allies who wish to protect her. She is presumed dead by the angels, only to reappear at the eleventh hour in a most surprising manner, in classic Christie fashion.
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Wikipedia