Andrew Wilson:  Death in a Desert Land, Simon & Schuster, 9781471173509, paperback

How I found out about this book I cannot exactly remember but it has provided delightful reading pleasures during the last week and is a perfect escapist summer read.  If you love Agatha Christie novels, particularly Poirot, this is your book.  

Agatha Christie is the star detective herself in this cleverly plotted novel set in Baghdad and Ur in 1928, loosely based around actual people and facts in Agatha Christie’s life.  Agatha is sent out to Iraq by British Intelligence officials to investigate the death of Gertrude Bell, the great traveller and linguist who had supposedly died of a drug overdose in Baghdad.  During her investigation she finds a letter Gertrude wrote but never mailed that she was afraid someone was out to kill her mentioning  that her murderer could probably be found at an archeological excavation site in Ur. Agatha packs her bags and heads for Ur where Leonard Woolley heads a promising archeological dig for the British Museum and is greeted by some very eccentric British and American visitors and helpers at the camp. When a murder takes place and Katherine, Woolley’s difficult wife, is accused of having killed Sarah Archer, the daughter of a wealthy American couple whom she greatly disliked and considered a rival, Agatha finds herself entangled in an explosive, dangerous situation forcing her to start her own investigation.  The plot is cleverly spun and in true Agatha Christie fashion naturally untangled at the end. Loved it!