Title: Murder in Mesopotamia
Author: Agatha Christie
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 352
Rating: 3*/5
Agatha Christie – Murder in Mesopotamia
I was a little disappointed by this because it’s a Hercule Poirot book and it was written when Christie was at the height of her power. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it particularly gripping, which is annoying because I picked this up specifically because I wanted something that I’d enjoy after not enjoying The Shadow of the Wind. But it didn’t work.
What I do like here is the setting. All of the action takes place on an archaeological dig, and Christie herself had a big interest in archaeology, in part because her second husband was an archaeologist. Her passion for that really shines through and so if you’re into archaeology then you’re going to enjoy this. It’s just that the case itself feels uninspired. I didn’t really care for either the characters or the mystery.
Another problem that I had is that the book is narrated in first person and I didn’t really get a sense of who the narrator actually was. It took me about 80% of the book to figure out that they were meant to be some sort of doctor, and it was just kind of weird to me to have a Poirot book that was narrated by a narrator who wasn’t Captain Hastings. It’s not necessarily a problem, but it did seem a bit weird. It was like eating a meal where the meal tastes good but the texture is off.
Agatha Christie
All in all then, it was fine. After all, it’s an Agatha Christie book, and Christie at her worst is better than most people at their best. The problem is that there just wasn’t much for me to recommend this one, and that made me kind of sad. It’s not what I’ve come to expect from Christie at all.
I’d still recommend reading this, purely because I think it’s worth reading all of her books and you’re going to have to read this one if you want to get to the end of her oeuvre. So yeah.
Agatha Christie Quote
