Rating: *** (3 stars out of 5)

This is one of those mysteries where you are very happy at the conclusion when you are reading the book, but after sometime, you start questioning everything. The book develops as Agatha Christie novels usually do. An initial murder, suspects, additional murders, red herrings followed by the final unveiling of the actual murderer. The explanation seems to fit all the known facts. So you are happy. But then after you put down the book, your mind wanders back to the book and slowly things that you digested seem to float back up.

How do I explain this without any spoilers? Well, first, if the murderer is who he/she is revealed to be, then it is pretty incredible given the other events described in the book which are not connected to the murderer, but happen during the course of the novel. Second, the crime depends on too many things to go exactly right, including the timing. There is also the question as to why the murderer chose this particular method of execution when there were so many easier ways. Why even Mesopotamia for that matter?