The doctor’s foreword reminded me of Victorian and Edwardian mysteries which often began with a narrator giving a reason for them telling a story, giving their forthcoming narration justification. I can see why Christie might have used it it is a means of providing information about the nurse which does not come from herself, but I wonder if the nurse’s letter could have stood on its own as an opening to the book, for readers to infer from. To me his manner of introducing the story and its narrator, came across as forced. However, re-reading this book I am not sure how well Dr Reilly’s opening worked as a framing device. Such characters have the advantage of being outsiders to the social context they are working in, yet due to their position can access insider knowledge.Īfter the foreword Dr Reilly says before Nurse Leatheran begins her narrative, he will include a fragment from one of her letters to establish her situation before the case. Eberhart, Anthony Gilbert and Constance and Gwenyth little (a.k.a. She has a professional character of the highest, she is not biased by having any previous connections with the University of Pittstown Expedition to Iraq and she was an observant and intellectual eye-witness.’ Nurses proved to be a popular choice of protagonist in vintage crime fiction novels, found in the works of authors such as Mary Roberts Rinehart, M. We are told in a foreword written by Dr Reilly that she is ‘obviously the person to do it.

The narrator of Murder in Mesopotamia is Amy Leatheran, who visits the Hassanieh dig to act as nurse companion to the victim, Dr Leidner’s wife, Louise.

But with Louise suffering from terrifying hallucinations, and tension within the group becoming almost unbearable, Poirot might just be too late…’ In a few days’ time Hercule Poirot was due to drop in at the excavation site. ‘An archaeologist’s wife is murdered on the shores of the River Tigris in Iraq… It was clear to Amy Leatheran that something sinister was going on at the Hassanieh dig in Iraq something associated with the presence of ‘Lovely Louise’, wife of celebrated archaeologist Dr Leidner.

Poirot death in mesopotamia