Murder in Mesopotamia

Wow, that takes me back. My mum was a big crime fiction fan & was fond of the Fontanas Our local library seemd to have found some kind of indestructable clear plastic bindings for them. One worries in the current political climate that the books will have survived the library.

You can't read Golden Age crime writers as if they were contemporary though. They were the vanguard; things, including readers, are more sophisticated these days. That said, you need only try one or two of the "The Cat Who [...]" series before you realise that the crowbar school of plotting is alive & well. :)

Are you at all given to Dorothy L Sayers?

I wasn't reading this book as if it was contemporary, simply comparing it to the few other Christies i've read. It really didn't match up.

I've never heard of Dorothy L Sayers, i'm afraid. Wikipedia told me she translated The Divine Comedy, and i had to check if my copy was of her translation, but it is not.

DLS wrote the Lord Peter Winsey series (a staple of radio4 serialisations, as well as many screen adaptations). They're entirely worth a go - beautiful use of language & very funny in places. Usual Golden-Age habit of leaving one open-mouthed at casual racism, but think it's wrong to clean that up - books are documents of their times.

Also, if you like Christie enough to read 4 of 'em, Margery Allingham is another name to conjour with. She wrote the Albert Campion series, allegedly to some extent a spoof of Lord Peter Wimsey.

I read DLS' Nine Tailors aeons ago. I then discovered that she hailed from the (rather skanky) nearby town, which has an annual related lecture. Further surprised when her Dante translation was extensively quoted in Lit 101 : )