They Came to Baghdad (1951, this edition 2003) is set in Baghdad, Iraq, in
1950.
Mr Dakin in Baghdad informs Captain Crosbie that an important political
summit will take place in the capital of Iraq on the 20th of next month – one
in which world leaders will attend. It is their job to ensure that nothing goes
wrong.
Henry Carmichael, a British agent, in Basrah, Iraq, had to get an urgent
message to the British Consul – to Richard Baker – before heading to Baghdad to
see Sir Richard Crofton Lee.
Victoria Jones is unemployed again, and she tells the career agency that
she wants a posting to Bagdad after meeting Edward Goring on a park bench in
London. He has told her that he is going there, but that’s all she knows. Anna
Scheele from New York arrives in London to see her sick sister, but also has
intentions of going to Baghdad – but promptly disappears in England.
By luck and chance, Victoria gets a free flight to Baghdad accompanying Mr
and Mrs Hamilton Clipp. She pretends she will be working with her uncle, Dr
Pauncefoot Jones, an archeologist – but this is just a ruse – she has no
employment in Iraq, hoping that Edward will help her.
In her hotel room in Baghdad, a man fleeing the police seeks a hiding
place. She hides this stranger – who dies minutes later. It is Henry
Carmichael.
Through Mr Dakin, she finds Edward, working for a company called The Olive
Branch. As she predicted, she fell in love with him immediately – so her crazy
journey to Iraq was justified. He knows Anna Scheele, but does he know where
she is? He also seems to be in love with one of the office ‘girls’ – Catherine.
On the flight to Baghdad is Sir Rupert Crofton Lee, but Victoria hears that
he was stabbed in Cairo on his way back to England. She suspects an air
hostess. Is his death connected to Carmichael’s death? And why was Carmichael
clutching a red scarf? As she’s trying to solve the mystery of the death of the
man in her room, while hoping to secure Edward’s attention, disaster strikes.
She is involved in stopping disaster at the political summit.
Agatha Christie had been to Iraq many times from the 1930s throughout her
life with her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan. Hence many of the
scenes in this fictional crime novel are trure to life. In her autobiography,
which she started in 1950 (at the time of writing this novel) and which she
finished 15 years later at the age of 75, she starts with a foreword on 2 April
1950 from Iraq in which she describes her accommodation: ‘So this is
my ‘house’ and the idea is that in it I have complete privacy and can
apply myself seriously to the business of writing.’ Because she has fond
memories of Iraq, I thought I’d re-read this one of her many books.
They Came to Baghad is unlike Christie’s well-known Hercule Poirot and Miss
Jane Marple books. This one is an espionage thriller, and one that I liked very
much. That is, until the end, which I thought was not quite as plausible as her
other works. But I did like the main character, Victoria Jones, who was well
defined in her role – from London to Baghdad, and from opportunistic to
quick-thinking strategist, she was the key to the mystery, taking the place of
Poirot or Marple, as well as handling the charming Edward with cunning and
insight.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of
Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet
(2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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