Category: Challenges

They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie: a Book Review

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

They came to Baghdad

I made copious notes as I read Agatha Christie’s They Came to Baghdad because it’s such a complex plot and there seemed to be so many significant events and people that I wanted to clarify what was happening. This is not one of Agatha Christie’s detective novels – no Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot,-  just Victoria Jones, a short-hand typist, a courageous girl with a ‘natural leaning towards adventure’ and a tendency to tell lies. Set in 1950 this is a story about international espionage and conspiracy. The heads of the ‘great powers‘ are secretly meeting in Baghdad, where if it all goes wrong ‘the balloon will go up with a vengeance.’ And an underground criminal organisation is out to make sure it does go wrong, aiming at ‘total war – total destruction. And then – the new Heaven and the new Earth.’

Victoria gets involved after one meeting with a young man, Edward, who is going out to Baghdad the following day to join an archaeological dig. She thinks he’s an incredibly good-looking man and considering herself an excellent judge of character is immediately attracted to him. As she has just been fired from her job, impulsively she decides to follow him to Baghdad, claiming to be the niece of Dr Pauncefoot Jones, Richard’s boss .

At the same time a British secret agent, Carmichael, is trying to get to Baghdad with important information, and is his life is in great danger. Will he get there? Anna Scheele, a mysterious character is also on her way to Baghdad and there are hints that she is at the centre of things. Just who is she and what side is she on?

Alongside the mystery, Agatha Christie’s descriptions of the locations, local people and of the archaeological dig are superb, no doubt taken from her experience of her own visits to Baghdad and Iraq. I enjoyed it for its entertaining plot, the authenticity of the background and its great characters, in particular I grew very fond of the amazing Victoria Jones.

  • First published in 1951 by William Collins & Co Ltd
  • My copy a secondhand paperback Fontana Books, 1980
  • My Rating: 4/5

R.I.P. VI Challenge Completed

Published on by Margaret3 Comments

Carl’s R.I.P. VI  challenge ended on 31 October and I’m pleased that I completed Peril the First, which was :

Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (my very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be Stephen King or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming or Edgar Allan Poe’¦or anyone in between.

I read the following books (linked to my reviews):

These are all books that were on my to-be-read list. I think Blood Harvest has to be my favourite of the four and I thoroughly enjoyed it – a dark, scary book, disturbing, and completely gripping.  I was particularly pleased that I finally read The Turn of the Screw as I first started to read it some years ago. It’s an ideal book for the RIP Challenge. Thanks go to Carl for hosting.

Ireland Reading Challenge 2011 Update

Published on by Margaret4 Comments

The Ireland Reading Challenge is being run by Carrie at Books and Movies. It involves reading any book written by an Irish author, set in Ireland, or involving Irish history or Irish characters. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, audiobooks, children’s books ‘“ all of these apply.

I have now completed the first level, Shamrock,  by reading these two books, both by Irish authors:

Two very different books!

The Luck o’ the Irish is next level of the Challenge, and it involves reading another two books. With a bit of luck I should manage this by the end of the year! :) Oops just realised the Challenge ends at the end of November!

My choice of books, from my stock of to-be-read books is this:

  • Anybody Out There by Marian Keyes
  • The Gathering by Anne Enright
  • Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
  • Sovereignty of Good by Iris Murdoch
  • Ulysses by James Joyce ‘“ if I read that next year I’ll be really pleased (and surprised)!
  • The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
  • Watchman by Ian Rankin
  • Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy

I might try Iris Murdoch’s Sovereignty of Good next – a bit of philosophy, that should make a change!

What’s In a Name 4 Challenge – Completed

Published on by Margaret1 Comment

I’ve  finished the What’s In a Name Challenge, hosted by Beth Fish Reads, reading a book from each of the set categories. Apart from Evil Under the Sun, which was a new purchase the books were all from my To-Be-Read books. They are listed below with links to my posts on them:

1. A book with a number in the title ‘“ One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
2. A book with jewelry or a gem in the title ‘“ The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
3. A book with a size in the title ‘“ Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
4. A book with travel or movement in the title ‘“ Exit Lines by Reginald Hill
5. A book with evil in the title – Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
6. A book with a life stage in the title ‘“ Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden

I had read Little Women several times before, many years ago and I read it this time prior to reading a biography of Louisa May Alcott and her father – Eden’s Outcasts by John Matteson. I think re-reading Little Women has taught me to leave well-loved books in my memory.  Although some of the magic was still there I thought it was a dated, sentimental tale.

Four of the books are crime fiction, which seems to be my preferred genre this year. The book I enjoyed the most was Reginald Hill’s Exit Lines, which is an excellent crime fiction novel which kept me guessing until the end.

Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Update

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

The Agatha Christie Reading Challenge is run by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. It’s an open-ended challenge to read all of Agatha Christie’s books. I’m not attempting to read them in order (as Kerrie is doing) but reading them as I find them. So far I have read her Autobiography, 25 of her full length books and 2 of the collections of her short stories:

Progress in publication date order (the links are to my posts on the books):

  1. 1920 The Mysterious Affair At Styles
  2. 1922 The Secret Adversary
  3. 1924 The Man in the Brown Suit
  4. 1926 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
  5. 1928 The Mystery of the Blue Train
  6. 1929 The Seven Dials Mystery
  7. 1932 Peril At End House
  8. 1934 Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? (Aka The Boomerang Clue)
  9. 1936 The A.B.C. Murders
  10. 1937 Death on the Nile
  11. 1938 Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
  12. 1939 Murder is Easy
  13. 1941 The Body in the Library
  14. 1946 The Hollow
  15. 1949 Crooked House
  16. 1953 A Pocket Full of Rye
  17. 1956 Dead Man’s Folly
  18. 1957 4.50 from Paddington
  19. 1961 The Pale Horse
  20. 1962 The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side
  21. 1964 A Caribbean Mystery
  22. 1968 By the Pricking of My Thumbs
  23. 1970 Passenger to Frankfurt
  24. 1972 Elephants Can Remember
  25. 1975 Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case (written in the 1940s)

Short Stories:

  1. 1932 The Thirteen Problems
  2. 1933 The Hound of Death

Autobiography/Biography

Agatha Christie: An Autobiography

I own a few more of her books, which I’ll be reading next:

  • Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
  • Dumb Witness (1937)
  • The Moving Finger (1942)
  • Taken at the Flood (1948)
  • They Do It With Mirrors (1952)
  • A Murder is Announced (1950)
  • They Came to Baghdad (1951)
  • The Golden Ball and Other Stories (1971)
  • Nemesis (1971)

I also have:

  • The Complete Parker Pyne: Private Eye,  which brings together the 14 stories featuring Mr Parker Pyne.
  • Miss Marple and Mystery: the Complete Short Stories.

What’s In a Name Challenge 2011 – Update

Published on by Margaret2 Comments

The What’s In a Name Challenge is hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

Challenge: to read one book from each category. I’ve now completed five out of the six categories – one more to go! The links go to my posts on the books:

1. A book with a number in the title – One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
2. A book with jewelry or a gem in the title – The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
3. A book with a size in the title – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
4. A book with travel or movement in the title – Exit Lines by Reginald Hill
5. A book with evil in the title –
6. A book with a life stage in the title – Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden