Rating: 
Summary: A FIRST-RATE READING
Review: Agatha Christie fans (and what mystery lover isn't one?) will thoroughly enjoy this vocal performance by Carole Boyd. It's a switch from the usual Hercule Poirot narrator, which gives the story a different viewpoint and dimension.
The Iraqi desert with its sand, sun and oppressive heat has never held Amy in thrall. Nonetheless, there she is to nurse a patient with frightening imaginings. At least, Amy believes they're imaginings until said patient is found murdered.
Enter the detecting powers of Hercule Poirot who, fortunately for all, happens to be visiting the excavation site. There's more afoot here than any of the archaeologists ever dreamed. Poirot must dig deep to solve this one.
Listen and enjoy the unparalleled story telling of Agatha Christie.
- Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: Christie doesn't hit it with this one
Review: "Murder in Mesopotamia" was written in 1936 and takes place just before the exellent "Murder in the Orient Express", one of Christies most classic novels. Unfortunately "Murder in Mesopotmia" appears to have given all it's strenght to that particulary ingenious story.The narrator is Amy Leatherman, a young nurse who is asked to join an archeological expedition in Irak. The reason for this is the wife of the leader of the expedition, Louise Leidner, who's distressed because of mysterious letters with death threats contained in them. And it just happens that the threats seem to be something more serious than just practical jokes... Christie leans on an obvious story instead of creating something truly original like she so often has. The murderer is pretty obvious and even the method isn't nearly as complex as you'd expect if you've read Christie before. "Murder in Mesopotamia" is entertainment above all else and it doesn't contain any of the more deeper aspects Christie often includes in her novels. Borrow it from the library if you like to read something light, but don't bother to by it, you probably won't need to read this one again.
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: A good book but I've read better ones by the same author. Nevertheless, Hercule Poirot still managed to show off his great detective skills. The identity of the murderer is, as always, very unexpected!
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderfully planned
Review: Agatha Christie is my favorite author of all time (and I'm only 14 years old), and this book is one of my favorites of hers.
Nurse Amy Leatheran is hired by American archaeologist Dr. Eric Leidner, on an expedition in Mesopotamia, to look after his anxious wife, Louise. One day Louise confesses to Nurse Leatheran that she has been receiving threatening letters warning her away from romantic relations with other men, purported to be from her first husband, now supposed to be dead. The next day she is found bludgeoned in her bedroom. According to the natives, no stranger entered the courtyard, so the killer must be one of the expedition staff. Who sent the letters (and possibly killed her)? Her first husband? His younger brother? Her current husband, Dr. Leidner? Another archaeologist on the team? Dr. Leidner's assistant? Or even Nurse Leatheran? Luckily for the local police, Hercule Poirot is on his way to Baghdad and just might stop in...
The motive and the M.O. were simple, compared to some of Christie's later novels, and it was, as I said above, wonderfully planned. A murder carried out while giving the murderer an alibi at the same time...
The influence of Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband, Sir Max Mallowan, is prominently displayed here. (I liked the television movie adaptation with David Suchet, but that's just me - I love the whole series. Hastings was included, and the scenery and music were wonderful.) All in all, an excellent read by one of the greatest authors of all time (and a decent TV movie, if you'd like to check it out.) :-)
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully planned
Review: Agatha Christie is my favorite author of all time (and I'm only 14 years old), and this book is one of my favorites of hers.
Nurse Amy Leatheran is hired by American archaeologist Dr. Eric Leidner, on an expedition in Mesopotamia, to look after his anxious wife, Louise. One day Louise confesses to Nurse Leatheran that she has been receiving threatening letters warning her away from romantic relations with other men, purported to be from her first husband, now supposed to be dead. The next day she is found bludgeoned in her bedroom. According to the natives, no stranger entered the courtyard, so the killer must be one of the expedition staff. Who sent the letters (and possibly killed her)? Her first husband? His younger brother? Her current husband, Dr. Leidner? Another archaeologist on the team? Dr. Leidner's assistant? Or even Nurse Leatheran? Luckily for the local police, Hercule Poirot is on his way to Baghdad and just might stop in...
The motive and the M.O. were simple, compared to some of Christie's later novels, and it was, as I said above, wonderfully planned. A murder carried out while giving the murderer an alibi at the same time...
The influence of Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband, Sir Max Mallowan, is prominently displayed here. (I liked the television movie adaptation with David Suchet, but that's just me - I love the whole series. Hastings was included, and the scenery and music were wonderful.) All in all, an excellent read by one of the greatest authors of all time (and a decent TV movie, if you'd like to check it out.) :-)
Rating:
Summary: A fun read, but not one of her best
Review: All the usual Christie ingredients are here: a body in a (virtually) locked room, a motley set of characters most of whom have something to hide, and a setting that adds further complications to the basic whodunit. But this mystery wasn't as exciting to read for me as some of her others: I felt that she'd used the same plot elements to better effect elsewhere, and the story seemed to drag during Poirot's lengthy "who could have done it?" inquiry. Still, I thought one part of it was admirable: having worked on digs and other field research projects myself, I felt that her picture of the group dynamics was right on target -- and Poirot's deduction of who done it on the basis of those dynamics was brilliant. (Christie accompanied her archeologist husband on many of his digs, and obviously was a good observer!)
Rating: 
Summary: Not one of Christie's Best!
Review: Although I enjoyed the setting of Murder in Mesopotamia (an archaeological dig), I found this book to be rather hackneyed and commonplace, definitely not up to Agatha Christie's standards. Somehow the characters seemed to be 2 dimensional...the only character who interested me was the young man who reminded the narrator of a Wodehouse character. In fact, after reading this book, I sallied forth to the library and checked out a book by P.G. Wodehouse, just so I could see what Ms. Christie was talking about. I highly recommend the works of Mr. Wodehouse, but not Murder in Mesopotamia. While I admit that the identity of the killer surprised me, by the time the murderer was unmasked, I was indifferent to the whole case. If you want to read a great Agatha Christie, read Death Comes as the End or And Then There Were None or Hallowe'en Party....they're all much better than Murder in Mesopotamia.
Rating:
Summary: Another fun read by Agatha Christie
Review: As another customer said: "In this book, you'll feel thrilled, devastated, fondness, fear, suspicion, hatred, curious and even more....
You'll feel thrilled when the genius Hercule Poirot solves the mystery....
You'll feel devastated when a character you have learned to love is brutally murdered....
You'll feel fondness for the main characters Nurse and Hurcule Poirot as well as the suspects....
You'll feel fear when someone is discovered sneaking about the grounds and again when you realize that unless the murder is solved, the person whose viewpoint we have will be the next victim...
You'll feel suspicion against all the characters as M. Poirot interrogates them....
You'll feel hatred against atleast two of the characters, the conceited, spoilt daughter of the doctor and again against the unknown murderer....
You'll feel curious as did Nurse when she snooped around for the littlest clue which might help M. Poirot." And I agree completely and I think you will too after you have read this book. Read it today.
Rating:
Summary: Another fun read by Agatha Christie
Review: As another customer said: "In this book, you'll feel thrilled, devastated, fondness, fear, suspicion, hatred, curious and even more....
You'll feel thrilled when the genius Hercule Poirot solves the mystery....
You'll feel devastated when a character you have learned to love is brutally murdered....
You'll feel fondness for the main characters Nurse and Hurcule Poirot as well as the suspects....
You'll feel fear when someone is discovered sneaking about the grounds and again when you realize that unless the murder is solved, the person whose viewpoint we have will be the next victim...
You'll feel suspicion against all the characters as M. Poirot interrogates them....
You'll feel hatred against atleast two of the characters, the conceited, spoilt daughter of the doctor and again against the unknown murderer....
You'll feel curious as did Nurse when she snooped around for the littlest clue which might help M. Poirot." And I agree completely and I think you will too after you have read this book. Read it today.
Rating:
Summary: Unearthing the Truth at an Archaeological Dig
Review: Before the Murder on the Orient Express, there was the Murder in Mesopotamia. In fact, the Mesopotamian murder mystery occurred just before Hercule Poirot traveled to Istanbul and caught the Orient Express. As a team of archaeologists labors away at an ancient Tell, the leader's wife has her head smashed in a room which no one else could have entered or left. The local constabulary is mystified, and Hercule Poirot, who just happens to be traveling in the area, is called in to consult. After some preliminary investigation to get the lay of the land, Poirot decides that everyone on the dig, with the exception of the husband and a recently retained nurse, is a suspect. He then begins his methodical quest to make some sense out of the available evidence and solve the "locked room" mystery of the wife's death. During the course of the investigation the reader comes to suspect every single member of the team, and by the time the mystery is solved, the reader has been thoroughly bewildered by the bizarre turns of events. The solution is both logical and satisfying, and it accounts for all the loose ends quite nicely. Unfortunately, it is so highly improbable as to be near ludicrous. Whoever ultimately prosecuted the case should have thanked his lucky stars that the murderer confessed when confronted by Poirot. Poirot's solution was a work of sheer logic without, as Poirot admitted, a shred of evidence to back it up. Poirot followed Sherlock Holmes' formula of eliminating the impossible. What he was left with, although improbable in the extreme, was what must have happened. Christie entertains throughout, but I have two quibbles: 1. She deliberately misleads the reader in two particulars as the story unfolds, so that the solution becomes all the more surprising. 2. Christie spins an entertaining yarn, and she may have been very knowledgeable on the subject of murder, but she betrays absolutely no understanding of the mechanics of perpetrating real-life murders or conducting real-life murder investigations. The killer's modus operandi reminds me of Rube Goldberg. The murderer's plan was so complex, so dependent upon others unwittingly doing just exactly as expected, and so likely to miscarry even if everyone followed the script, that no intelligent murderer would attempt it. When Poirot announces his solution, he prefaces his remarks with the caveat that he hasn't got a shred of evidence to back it up. After being confronted, the murderer obligingly confesses. An investigator attempting to get a murderer to confess would never announce going in that he had no evidence. A murderer confronted with zero evidence of guilt would never, ever supply the deficit by confessing. I listened to the BBC radio production of the story as I drove on a long business trip. Poirot made the miles slip by much faster.
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