They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie
Review of the novel They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie
Published by William Collins Sons & Co Ltd.
Cost: £2.50 (UK Paperback March 1988)
ISBN: 0-00-646605-9 (Paperback Edition - 254 pages)
Dedication: To all my friends in Baghdad
First Published: 5 March 1951, Collins Crime Club
I should point out the story was serialised in John Bull in January 1951. Having been asked for my view on this novel recently, I thought it better if I reread it and put my thoughts on paper.
They Came to Baghdad can be seen as a thriller, rather than the murder mystery we would expect from Christie. This story follows A Murder is Announced, published in 1950, and is very different in its plot and storyline. There are no lead detectives, instead we follow the trail of Victoria Jones, a rather incompetent copy typist, who soon finds herself out of a job. When Agatha Christie speaks about the novel she informs us that it was inspired by her trips to Baghdad with her husband Sir Max Mallowan, and when she writes about life the city of Baghdad the writing is very clear and fluent, but less so in other parts of the novel.
The plot of the story is about a secret summit of superpowers being held in Baghdad, which a group of anti-communists are trying to prevent. I find that the story gets a little complicated as Christie has to keep track of the superpower representatives, as they make their way to the summit. For Victoria Jones, the problem is that she finds herself unknowingly involved in the anti-communist plan to kill representatives of the superpower in an attempt to cancel the meeting.
If the story seems a little confusing, everything is made clear in the final chapter, but I found myself turning back to pages that I had read to identify which character had changed their name or had been kidnapped and was now a known character, standing in for the kidnapped person.
At this point I need to be careful not to give away any spoilers. Having spent the first chapter setting the background as to why the meeting of the superpowers will meet in Baghdad, Christie introduces the reader to Miss Victoria Jones in Chapter two. Having lost her job, Victoria is contemplating on her situation while sitting on a bench in FitzJames Gardens, London. She is soon approached by the man of her dreams and when they depart, he is off to Baghdad and she is thinking of anything but finding a new job, to the extent that she decides that she might be able to find a suitable job in Baghdad.
For Victoria Jones, life in Baghdad gets a little exciting. A man rushes into her bedroom and dies on the bed; she is kidnapped but escapes; works for a week on an archaeological expedition; dresses up as a nun; passes herself off as a member of the superpower; and finally, is offered a job with an admirer on the archaeological dig.
There are two passages which I found I raced to read on as the storyline was so captivating. Firstly, at the start of Chapter 18, when Victoria awakes from being chloroformed and drugged to find herself in a locked room in the middle of nowhere, and secondly, Chapter 22 when Victoria meets her admirer in a situation he has contrived and persuades her to present herself as a member of the summit. Throughout the story the plot appears to be complicated and the conversations between characters do not flow smoothly, but Christie allows Victoria to express her unspoken thoughts to be written on the page, which makes much of the storyline clearer to the reader. My conclusion, on the whole, an enjoyable story, but for me, not one her best. Rating: 3 stars.
Dr Sheppard
20 August 2018
