Book Review: They Came to Baghdad
You seem to be a sensible young woman and I don’t suppose you’ve thought much about world politics which is just as well, because as Hamlet very wisely remarked, ‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so
This week, we’re back with a classic Agatha Christie. I am slowly making my way through the lot of them. But considering that some of her books are set as early as the Edwardian era and that Christie was writing right up until the 70s, there are rather many books to get through. I’m not complaining though.
They Came to Baghdad is one of her lesser-known works. It’s not a Poirot or a Marple, but one of the few stand-alone novels she did. The heroine is one Victoria Jones a rather inept typist who finds herself out on her ear having lunch in the park when she comes across Edward – a very good-looking and charming man on his way to Baghdad. At that moment Victoria is determined to go after him and, somehow, get to Baghdad. But little does Victoria know that upon her arrival in the Middle East, she has stepped into the spider's web of espionage when a man stumbles into her hotel room and promptly dies leaving her with enigmatic clues. Who can she trust? Is it possible to trust anyone? With little money, but a firm head upon her shoulders, Victoria tells tall, but not impossible tales, to keep her (just about) out of trouble; she certainly finds a delicious joy in deceiving the deceiver.
This book has an element of ‘be careful what you wish for’, for a young and deceptively impressionable woman like Victoria. She longs for an adventure, and she certainly got one! There is an element of mistaken identity, ending up on an archaeological dig and the looming modern threat of nuclear war on the horizon. The middle east was the West's playground, a crucible of deceit and murder. The beauty of an Agatha Christie book, especially one of her stand-alone mysteries is that you never see it coming. Heck, I didn’t until the last 50 or so pages of the book. You almost want to admonish Victoria for her naivety in being so trusting of everyone and by the skin of her teeth, she survives.
Good grief did this book have me on the edge of my seat right to the very end.