My first Agatha Christie novel!

The beauty of letting people into your life is that they bring you new perspective; new art; new music and new books. And reading the books recommended to you by people you love is such a unique way to get to know that person better. Or as it was phrased in my case “You’ve never read Agatha Christie? I don’t think I can truly love you until you do!”

Thankfully I loved the book ad so my boyfriend doesn’t have to dump me just yet. I am always weary of detective books, I find the level of details exhausting and there are always too many people to keep straight; it’s always “so Emmott was the quiet American? No, that was the other guy…was he the architecht, did he like Louise?” I’m really not good at books like this and I always find that they take up too much time.

But this one I will give 5 stars. It was easy to read, the characters were, mostly, distinctive enough for me to be able to discern properly and it was just really, really entertaining. I read it in about 5 or 6 hours and I found it impossible to put down.

The plot is fairly simple; Amy Leatheran is a nurse hired by Dr Leidner to take care of his wife Louise while at an archaeological dig in Iraq. Louise is terrible frightened of someone or something and the mood among the archaeologist in the house is terribly strained. Despite the tensions in the house Nurse Leatheran takes a liking to Louise and Louise actually feels momentarily safer; that is until she is suddenly and mysteriously killed alone in her room. Thus the investigation begins and the famous Poirot is just happening to pass by to aid in the investigation. Leatheran becomes somewhat of an assistant and we follow the case alongside Poirot, but through her eyes and through her assumptions as well; a format that works very well. The opinions and prejudices the nurse introduces are prejudices that are common and very plausible and lend a wonderful air of realism and complexity to the story. The reveal was suspenseful, interesting and very realistic, but most of all I just really liked the nurse and her prancing around and trying not to get killed.