MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA
edubeltran
Catalonia, Spain
I read it again last weekend, years after having done so for the first time. I remembered the murderer very well, though no the motive. As I have been seeing in this forum, this comes as generally, one of the most disliked Christies of all. I did, however, enjoy it quite a lot although the ending did not convice me too much. I think the reason for the first murder is quite light and SPOILER WHY didn't he murder his wife's lover's instead of her. Also I think very very improbable, to not say impossible, that someone would not recognize her former husband after 15 years
Comments
I like the book. It isn't my favorite one nor I think it's marvelous. But it's great. I enjoyed it.
SPOILER:
I think he murdered his wife because his love for her it wasn't normal. He didn't want any man to marry or be her lover, because she was the "source" of the love. He didn't care about the others. They're not important. He wanted her to love him only and she betrayed him, not his wife's lover.
And I also think improbable not regognize her former husband. He wasn't anyone that you met in a party!
SPOILER:
I understand that it was a difficult and troubled time because of the war,. And this was the motive that I didn't write it was impossible Louise not to recognize her former husband.
So I suppose we agree about this.
And I still thinking he's a kind of obsessive. He wasn't normal. And I think that you understand this point of view, but it's not yours and (probably) it was not A.C. Is that so?
She (Mrs. Leidner) remember me Arlena Marshall from Evil under the Sun. They're both egoistic in a dangerous way. They don't realize that they can hurt someone, in fact, they don't realize someone's feelings, only the things that are good or bad for them.
As for the lack of letters being a clue that Leidner is Bossner - the letters did start again as soon as they were married. Poirot points out that this was done in order to supress any suspicion that Leidner could be Bossner.
As for the possibility of Bossner not being dead, it isn't true that the reader only learns this at the end of the story. When Louise tells the story to Nurse Wetheren, she states that after the letters started coming her father told her that Bossner had not been executed, but had been presumed dead after a disfigured corpse had been found in the train wreck with Bossner's papers. From this point on the reader should be aware that there is a chance that Bossner is alive.
What I find more incredible than that Louise didn't recognize Bossner, is the fact that the quern trap actually worked - that Louise stuck her head out the window instead of getting up, running to the roof and catching whoever it was. After all, at this point she isn't connecting the mask with murder, but rather seeing it as a malicious trick against her, and the natural reaction of a controlling, egocentric woman would be to publically confront her tormentor and give him hell! Also, the stairs to the roof are almost directly opposite her as soon as she leaves the room, so the trickster couldn't have escaped without her hearing and seeing him come down the stairs. I find it hard to imagine that a woman like Louise would want to face her persecutor when she is far below him, her neck twisted out of the window between the bars, and he is standing above herl .And also, by the time she reached the window, the prankster (assuming it was a prank) would have probably stepped back and been out of sight, so there was even less reason to look out the window.