An archaeologist’s wife is feeling threatened at a dig in Iraq and the man insists on getting a nurse to watch his wife. The nurse discovers that there is something weird going on in the camp, the atmosphere is rather stuffed. And then the wife is found dead, murdered in her room in the middle of the day and nothing suspicious has been seen. Hercule Poirot, who happens to be travelling by, takes the case and solves it, but not until another murder has taken place.
Another excellent Poirot story. And I liked the twist where the story is narrated as a book written by the nurse, with an introduction and everything.
This is quite a long Poirot story. It is really built up well, the motives for going to Egypt from everyone involved are explained and I got really involved in the story. And for once I finally guessed who did the murders. Definitely one of my favourite Agatha Christie stories.
Another good read, but not as quite as good as the other two in the Poirot in the Orient omnibus. I was quite surprised to see so much xenophobia and racism in the stories, but it definitely mirrors the British world view in the 1930s. And I was also surprised to discover that Poirot lets some crimes slip through his fingers – after telling the criminals that he knows the truth, of course.
