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THEY CAME TO BAGHDAD- PB Paperback – January 1, 2017
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarper
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 2017
- Dimensions5.08 x 0.75 x 7.8 inches
- ISBN-109780008196356
- ISBN-13978-0008196356
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Product details
- ASIN : 0008196354
- Publisher : Harper (January 1, 2017)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780008196356
- ISBN-13 : 978-0008196356
- Item Weight : 7.1 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.08 x 0.75 x 7.8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,176,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #119,237 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Born in Torquay in 1890, Agatha Christie began writing during the First World War and wrote over 100 novels, plays and short story collections. She was still writing to great acclaim until her death, and her books have now sold over a billion copies in English and another billion in over 100 foreign languages. Yet Agatha Christie was always a very private person, and though Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple became household names, the Queen of Crime was a complete enigma to all but her closest friends.
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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Christie spent some time in the Middle East with her archeologist husband and mined the setting for several earlier books, mostly featuring Hercule Poirot. This book is unusual both in not featuring one of her series detectives and in being a spy thriller rather than a murder mystery. It takes the form of a "North by Northwest" style thriller with an innocent person being swept up in a tale of international intrigue. The setting of Iraq must have seemed exotic and unfamiliar to readers in the U.S. and U.K. in 1951. Unfortunately, events of the last decade have made Baghdad, Basra, Kirkuk, and some of the other cities mentioned all too familiar. It's rather ironic to have the Iraq of those days described as well-policed and perfectly safe for a young Englishwoman to travel through alone.
Although I very much enjoyed the book, it has a few weaknesses. Both the British intelligence service and its opponents seem fantastically well-organized and effective. Much more so than any real world spy service -- although this is a failing the book shares with most spy thrillers. in addition, key plot developments are telegraphed in a way that even I was able to pick up and I tend to be pretty weak in solving mysteries.
In summary, while this book is far from the typical Christie, I think most of her fans, as well as fans of period spy thrillers, will find it very entertaining.
One last point: I like these new Harper reprints. Although paperbacks, they can be read easily without breaking the binding and they should hold up to rereading. A word of warning, though, the blurb on the back cover gives away a plot point that doesn't occur until more than half way through the book!
She goes to the park and is wondering what she should do when a young, good looking man approaches her and begins a conversation. The two of them seem to hit it off, but the man, Edward, explains that of all the ill gotten luck, he's leaving the country to go to Baghdad shortly. He mentions where he will be working and the name of his boss, but no last name.
Victoria decides to take control of her life. Even though he's going to Baghdad, she's not going to let that stop her from pursuing the relationship, and she is persistent in finding a way to get to Baghdad herself, which she does by assisting an Englishwoman who had broken her arm and needed help.
Once there, she has no means of support and tries every which way to locate her Edward. She finally does so but discovers that he's in a neighboring town. She was staying in a room in a fine hotel that was arranged by the woman who brought her to Baghdad, when a man knocks and staggers into her room and asks to be hidden. Her sense of adventure again takes hold of her, and she has him go into her bed under the covers to hide him. The police come but don't think to look for him there. When the police leave, she tells the man to get up, but there's no response. She repeats herself in a more persistent manner but again no response. When she removes the covers she finds that he was killed - stabbed in the chest. Another knock brings another man to her door, and this time, it's someone who is from some type of British government organization and she becomes embroiled in a plot to prevent the assassination of several political figures who will be coming to Baghdad, including the President of the United States.
As she innocently tries to uncover information that would be helpful, she finds herself getting deeper into trouble, but she turns out to be extremely resourceful and quick thinking. She gets kidnapped, but manages to escape; she finds herself posing as an anthropologist assisting her "uncle" in various digs; and all the while, she keeps picking up on clues that others around her did not notice, to uncover the plot.
Very well done, and it's a joy to follow how she finds herself moving from one situation to the next and how she keeps saving herself. Excellent story.
Top reviews from other countries
Air travel was vastly different too, no direct flights, staying in rest houses, being woken at 4.30 for breakfast at 05.00, being driven to the airport for 06.00 and finally not leaving till 08.00!! Some things it seems, don’t change.
The descriptions of both Baghdad and Basrah are very interesting too.
All in all a small time capsule of a book, superbly written by a great author.