Rating: 
Summary: Good Murder Mystery
Review: Murder among the pottery with the incomparable Hercule Poirot, who just happens to be in the area, solving the murder with impeccable logic. Colorful characters (including the return of a dead husband)and a good story line make this a one sitting read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Story
Review: Murder in Mesopotamia is one of the better mysteries written by Agatha Christie. There are many suspects, including Dr. Lidner, Nurse Leatherman, Miss Johnson, Mr. Coleman, Mr. Richard Carey, Mr. Mercado, Mrs. Mercado, Miss Matilan and Super Intendent Matilan.This story revolves around Louise Lidner, who is killed. This mystery is interesting because it is not what it seems. As Hercule Poirot states, "It is so straight forward." You really get to know every character. One of them whom you grow attatched to and was mentioned above, is murdered. Definitely read "Murder in Mesopotamia."
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite Christie mysteries
Review: Murder in Mesopotamia may not be as famous as some of Agatha Christie's other works but it is an excellent book none the less. Featuring Hercule Poirot, the story is set in Mesopotamia (i.e. Iraq) at an archaeological dig. Christie's husband, Max Mallowan, was a noted British archaeologist and she spent a great deal of time with him in Iraq. Her familiarity with and affection for her subject matter is clear and infuses the story. The book itself is classic Christie- well-plotted, crisp dialogue, great characters, lots of red herrings and a satisfying conclusion which, as usual, left me stumped. Great fun to read. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant shadowplay by the Queen
Review: Oftentimes, in Agatha Christie's novels, the crimes are always based from something that has happened a long time ago, i.e. 'past sins cast long shadows'. And more often than not, money has always been the central cause of the murders. In this novel, Christie only obeys the first statement. Even the motif is rather outlandish and cruel. The setting is somewhere in the digs of outer Baghdad (obviously she drew these from her experiences with her second husband Max Mallowan, who was an archaeologist) in a quarters for archaeologists. Due to her unstable mental conditions (seeing faces at her window where no one could have stood and peered in), Dr Eric Lidner looks for a companion-nurse for his wife, Louise. He found Amy Leatheran who became Louise's confidante and one day she tells Amy that someone was after her, probably her first husband whom she thought had died. After that outburst Louise refused to talk about it anymore until one day when his husband found Louise's dead body in a locked room, in front of the whole achaeology team. Nurse Leatheran later finds herself as a suspect when Poirot arrives, but later became his sidekick. Plot-wise, this is one of Agatha Christie's best. The stroyline is also richly layered, with various people who have different crimes of their own which unwittingly made them suspects. This is a wonderful read, as it was with the rest of the Queen's stories.
Rating: 
Summary: Perhaps Poirot should have vacationed somewhere else...
Review: since his trip to the Middle East seems to keep him working. This 1935 novel is set in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) at an archeological dig, a setting that Christie came to know quite well after her marriage to an archeologist. A nurse, Amy Leatheran, has been engaged to care for the wife of the leader of an archeological expedition. She was told that the woman was suffering from 'nerves' only and that there was no real problem. Unfortunately for the patient her concerns turned out to be not imaginary after all, she was murdered. Hercule Poirot who was traveling through the area was brought into the case and of course solved the mystery. MURDER IN MESPOTAMIA is part of a series of book that covers Poirot's Middle Eastern 'holiday' (APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS also chronicle this trip). It is unusual in that the story is narrated by Amy Leatheran who also acts as Poirot's assistant when he enters the story about 1/3 of the way through the story. Although this is fairly laid out, as all of Christie's works, and has an intriguing and clever plot I found it difficult to really get into this one. Many of the characters were rather one dimensional and not very interesting. Still one of Christie's lesser works is still better than most other writer's best efforts.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps Poirot should have vacationed somewhere else...
Review: since his trip to the Middle East seems to keep him working. This 1935 novel is set in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) at an archeological dig, a setting that Christie came to know quite well after her marriage to an archeologist. A nurse, Amy Leatheran, has been engaged to care for the wife of the leader of an archeological expedition. She was told that the woman was suffering from 'nerves' only and that there was no real problem. Unfortunately for the patient her concerns turned out to be not imaginary after all, she was murdered. Hercule Poirot who was traveling through the area was brought into the case and of course solved the mystery. MURDER IN MESPOTAMIA is part of a series of book that covers Poirot's Middle Eastern 'holiday' (APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS also chronicle this trip). It is unusual in that the story is narrated by Amy Leatheran who also acts as Poirot's assistant when he enters the story about 1/3 of the way through the story. Although this is fairly laid out, as all of Christie's works, and has an intriguing and clever plot I found it difficult to really get into this one. Many of the characters were rather one dimensional and not very interesting. Still one of Christie's lesser works is still better than most other writer's best efforts.
Rating:
Summary: One of her very best books
Review: The people who decry this book as not being as good as some of her others are misplaced in their views. This is definitely another of her masterpieces. Her best Poirot books are those set in this kind of territory (I.e. Murder On the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, Appointment with Death, Murder, and this one.) because the setting really enhances the plot. The way this book is narrated is rather different from some of the other books. Told from the perspective of the nurse who looked after the victim before she died, it is very engaging and the prose brings a very human element to the book, and the feelings and emotions of being caught up in a murder, in which everyone becomes a suspect. It works very well. There are some great characters in this one. Some eccentric, some you grow to love, some you are indifferent to. None that you actively dislike. All intriguing. The way the story unfolds is materful, and the methods for murder are, when finally revealed, ingenius. You would enver think of it in a million years, even thought it really is staring you in the face. Also, this books holds the top place in the "most vile deaths in an Agatha Christie novel" category. Anne Johnson's instrument of demise is, to be blunt, quite horrible. I felt sick at the thought of it. (And the way it was depicted in a recent television adaptation in the UK was quite vile. But powerful, and packs a great punch.) An incredibly strong, yet simple, plot, is what makes this book stand out amongst her others. It has power, and is emotional and intense. The method of murder is quite brilliant. The solution, whilst not packing a great surprise as some of her more unlikely novels do, nonetheless rings true. (It would be incredibly hard to have made the identity of the killer a real surprise...all the characters seemed to be viable suspects, and wouldn't pack a great surprise if it was revealed to be them.) This stands among "Towards Zero" "Murder is Easy" "Appointment With Death" "Death on the Nile" "Death Comes as the end" "And Then there Were None" and "Murder on the Orient Express" as one of her very very best books.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Book
Review: This book in my opinion was pretty good. It started off a little slow, but it got interesting. At the beginning of the book, Nurse Leatheran was asked by Dr. Leidner to stay with his wife, Mrs. Leidner because she was acting weird. Something was bothering her. So the nurse goes. When she gets there, she finds that Dr. Leidner is an archeologist and has an expedition team. They are all staying at Dr. Leidner's house. The nurse meets Mrs. Leidner and finds out why she is acting the way she is. She was getting letters from her husband from twenty years ago saying that he was going to kill her. So Mrs. Leidner was afraid. A few days later Mrs. Leinder gets murdered. A detective named Hercule Poirot was passing the area and decides to take the case. He talks to the nurse and the whole expedition staff. You find out that anyone could have committed the murder. Poirot narrows it down a little, but it is still very unclear who did it. After suspecting Miss Johnson, she is killed. The nurse was talking to her the day before, and it seemed that Miss Johnson knew something about the murder and wouldn't tell the nurse, and the next day she is dead. The book gets pretty good when Poirot is trying to figure out who the murderer is. You also start thinking about who did it. At the beginning of the book the nurse is just a nurse, but when the story goes on, she starts to help out Poirot in solving the mystery. When you start nearing the end of the book, things get narrowed down. You have a good idea of who it could be. But don't jump to any conclusions because the murderer isn't who you think it is. Poirot figures out who it is, and goes on telling the staff just how he thinks the murderer had committed it. After explaining it, the murderer confesses that the story Poirot had told was completely true. I thought it was an interesting way Mrs. Leidner had been killed. It made perfect sense when Poirot told what happened, but I never thought of it earlier. I think this was a good mystery. I liked the way Agatha had written this one. You didn't really know all of the characters very well though. You knew some better than others, so you really couldn't suspect as many of them. I wanted to put the book down when I first started reading it, but I made myself read it and after a few chapters I really started enjoying it. I think most people would like this book, and would be interested in who the killer was.
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