Review by yvo_about_books - Murder in Mesopotamia

yvo_about_books 's review for:

Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie

3.0

mysterious medium-paced

Finished reading: March 13th 2025

"There's a convention that one doesn't speak ill of the dead. That's stupid, I think. The truth's always the truth. On the whole it's better to keep your mouth shut about living people. You might conceivably injure them. The dead are past that. But the harm they've done lives after them sometimes."

I was in the mood for another Hercule Poirot story... I still have to read one of the previous books, but I decided to pick up Murder In Mesopotamia instead because I loved the sound of the premise and the Iraqi desert setting. What surprised me was that Hercule Poirot actually wasn't all that present in this sequel (especially in the first part), and instead we follow the thoughts of nurse Amy Leatheram. This is probably why it's not my favorite Hercule Poirot sequel I'm afraid... I can't say that I was a fan of Amy's character and some of her commentary was quite disrespectful to be honest. I would also have loved to see more of that Iraqi desert setting and the archeology angle... Sadly, since Amy doesn't care about neither of those, we don't get to read much about it in the end. I can't deny that the case itself was quite interesting though, and it had that locked room vibe I always love. It was interesting to see Poirot slowly working things out, although I do have to say that the final reveal was a bit too farfetched for me this time around and there were certain things that I just don't see could have worked as he explained. Like I said before, Murder In Mesopotamia wasn't exactly my favorite Poirot story. It's not terrible either, but there are other sequels I would recommend reading instead.

Content Warnings